Cops Kill Family Dog In Front of 12-Year-Old Girl During Warrantless Backyard Search, Federal Court Orders Jury Trial

In 2006 two police officers in
Hartford, Connecticut, received a tip from a local gang member who
said that illegal guns were being stashed in an abandoned Nissan
Maxima parked in the backyard of a particular house. Although the
informant never explained how he learned about this alleged hiding
place, the officers wasted no time in acting on the information.
They went straight to the house and straight into the backyard.
They did not stop to get a search warrant first.

Upon arrival the officers found no Nissan and no guns. What they
did find was a 3-year-old St. Bernard named Seven, who they
proceeded to shoot and kill in front of the 12-year-old girl who
was playing with her pet in the backyard at the time. According to
that girl, she watched one of the officers shoot the dog in the
head while it was lying wounded on the ground from two previous
shots.

The girl’s family filed suit over this warrantless home
invasion, but a jury ruled for the police. The jury said the
“exigent circumstances” exception to the Fourth Amendment permitted
a warrantless search in this particular case.

Yesterday the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit rejected
that jury’s holding and ordered a new trial for the offending
officers. “There was simply insufficient evidence to warrant the
application of the exigent circumstances exception here,” the 2nd
Circuit declared in
Harris v. O’Hare. “Taken to its logical end, [the
officers’] argument would permit exigent circumstances anytime
there is a tip about illegal guns being located in a high-crime
neighborhood or city, and would allow the exception to swallow the
rule.”

Editor’s Note: This article originally misstated the
age of the dog’s young owner.