Lips trembling, and tears streaming down his face, 10-year-old A.J. is broken up about the loss of his best friend Jakey, a boxer.
"His dog had been shot,” said A.J.’s mother, Julia Wilson.
Julia points the finger at police. She says they showed up at her house on complaints of loud barking, noise the other family dog was making. Wilson says A.J. answered the officer's knock at the door, but before he could grab Jakey, she was already on the porch. And the officer had his gun drawn.
Police, however, say that’s not how it happened. Captain Ryan Perkins said once officers arrived, one of Wilson’s dogs was tearing up the front yard and dragging trash around. Something neighbors say is an ongoing problem.
Perkins said Jakey was aggressive when she ran onto the porch, and lunged at one of his officers.
“The officer told the boy to get control of his dog and he didn’t,” said Perkins. “The dog lunged at the officer again and that’s when he fired two shots and hit the dog once.”
"I told him don't shoot, she's not aggressive, and she has a shock collar, two seconds later, he shot my dog," said A.J.
A.J. recalled watching the dog run into the house, and collapse in a pool of blood and die.
“Before she got shot, she looked back at me,” said A.J.
Perkins said the shooting is being investigated internally, he also said the family did not receive a citation for the complaints about their dogs.
