A golden retriever was shot dead by a police officer in Ohio and dramatic bodycam footage caught the controversial moment – as cries for the cop’s firing from the bereaved family grow.
The July 2 footage showed Lorain police officer Elliott Palmer shooting three-and-a-half-year-old Dixie and then leaving the dog dying on the sidewalk.
The dog ran up to the responding officer at the scene, and while it did not appear aggressive, it was coming towards Palmer when he opened fire.
That sparked outrage from people who witnessed the killing and now family and social-media observers are calling for the officer’s job.
‘After she was shot one time in the street, he should have just let it go and let us get the dog and take her where she needed to be treated,’ the dog’s owner, Tammie Kerns, said to 3News, in tears.
‘But he didn’t do that. She was crawling — useless, helpless — in the street. He continued shooting her. She was trying to come to safety, and he just kept shooting her three more times after the first time,’ she added.
Dixie, a three-and-half-year-old, golden retriever was shot dead by a police officer on July 2 in Lorain, Ohio
Lorain police officer Elliott Palmer shot the dog when it ran towards him
The Lorain Police Department has launched an investigation into the incident, assuring transparency and a thorough examination of the circumstances.
It’s unclear if Palmer remains on duty during the investigation. Dailymail.com has reached out to the Lorain Police Department but officials did not respond in time for this report.
The Kerns family has threatened legal action against the police department, demanding justice for Dixie.
Poll
DO YOU THINK THE COP WAS JUSTIFIED?
- YES 164 votes
- NO 685 votes
‘He should lose his job,’ Kerns said to 3News of the officer earlier this week. ‘He should go to jail. He should rot. I don’t want him to shoot somebody else. He needs to be off the streets. There were innocent bystanders nearby.’
Kerns claims her dogs got loose early Sunday afternoon after getting startled by July 4th fireworks.
‘I am jumping at the sound of every firework I had a breakdown panic attack on my front porch because someone set off a firework down the street nowhere near me,’ Kerns said to 19News.
She and her daughter were attempting to retrieve the dogs, before Palmer pulled up to their home on Oberlin Avenue near 8th Street. He got out of his vehicle, and told the residents to get their dogs under control.
‘I thought hey this man’s gonna help us stop traffic so if any of our dogs do happen to run in the street, he was gonna stop it that’s what most cops do,’ her daughter added.
The encounter first made headlines when neighbors posted their own footage of the aftermath of the shooting on social media, sparking outrage and calling for the officer to be fired.
That led Lorain police to release footage from Palmer’s bodycam this week.
As Palmer arrived at the scene of a reported dog bite around 1 pm on July 2, one dog ran up to the cop and was friendly. The officer puts his hand out seemingly wanting to pet the dog.
That dog then goes back into the yard as Dixie sprints towards the cop from a nearby driveway.
The situation quickly escalated when Palmer drew his gun, tried to back up and shot Dixie multiple times. There was no audio at that point in the bodycam footage.
The dog collapsed in the street, struggling to get up while the officer continued firing shots.
Dixie was then spotted dragging her hind legs as she tried to make it back to the grass from the middle of the street. At the end of a neighbor’s driveway, Dizie collapsed.
Tammie Kerns, could be seen walking up to Palmer, yelling at him that he just shot her dog.
Palmer then walked toward where Dixie is lying. The dog was sitting up, looking around and moving her tail.
Then Kerns said: ‘You stupid f***. Why did you do it? I’m suing you.’
Palmer replies, ‘OK, your dog charged me.’ And tells her repeatedly to get back.
Kerns claims her dogs got loose early Sunday afternoon after getting startled by July 4th fireworks
Palmer drew his gun, tried to back up and shot Dixie multiple times as the dog ran toward him
‘Dixie is not used to screaming when she’s around people they all want to play with her or let her lick them or be lovable as labs do and Dixie took off not towards the officer,’ Kerns said to 19News.
‘She was six feet away from him running that way he was nowhere near her, and she was no way near him or charging him as he claimed later on. She charged to go across the street,’ she added.
‘When he fired on her she was in the middle of the street on the yellow lines.’
Meanwhile, the officer’s report states that three people, one of which had a cut on her forearm, were trying to catch the dogs but couldn’t.
In the original incident report, obtained by The Chronicle-Telegram, Palmer wrote that he was patrolling in the area when he saw five large, yellow dogs running in multiple yards.
The report claims a dog then snapped at a woman who was attempting to grab it by the tail, as another dog ‘charged’ at the officer.
‘Due to the totality of the circumstances, I feared for my immediate safety. As the dog charged me, I drew my service pistol,’ the officer wrote.
‘At this point the dog was no more than a few feet away from me. I then discharged my service pistol several times at the dog to stop the threat. The dog then ran toward the front of my cruiser, and passed due to its injuries.’
‘I really don’t know. He is saying he feared for his life, but how is he fearing for his life when the dog is going in the opposite direction?’ Kerns previously told FOX 8.
During the incident, Tammie Kerns disagreed and yelled at Palmer that Dixie was harmless. Palmer immediately called for backup after the shooting.
When family and neighbors realized the dog had been shot the surrounded and confronted the officers, yelling obscenities at them.
The gruesome July 2 shooting footage showed Lorain police officer Elliott Palmer shooting three-and-a-half-year-old Dixie and then leaving the dog bleeding and dying on the sidewalk
Dixie can be seen struggling to get up, while dragging her hind legs until she is at the end of a neighbor’s driveway and collapses
Owner Tammie Kerns, and witnesses expressed shock and anger at the officer’s actions, asserting that the shooting was unwarranted
The officer immediately calls a Lorain police sergeant as backup as the neighbors begin to gang up on him for the horrific act they had just witnessed.
That sergeant ordered the patrolman to return to the police station, ‘to remove him from a volatile situation, as he was being targeted by the citizens on-scene,’ he wrote.
Kerns, and witnesses expressed shock and anger at the officer’s actions, asserting that the shooting was unwarranted.
When video of the shooting’s aftermath was posted online it led to calls for Palmer’s firing.
The officer immediately calls a Lorain police sergeant as backup as the neighbors begin to gang up on him for the horrific act they had just witnessed
After the shooting, nearly a dozen people ran toward the policeman, circling him and yelling profane insults
A petition calling for Palmer’s removal from the force has gained significant support. The petition called ‘Justice for Dixie’ had more than 3,000 signatures as of Wednesday evening.
A petition calling for Palmer’s removal has gained significant support. The petition called ‘Justice for Dixie’ had more than 3,000 signatures as of Wednesday evening.
‘That dog was wagging its tail coming to him,’ Kaspirek expressed to The Chronicle. ‘… Justice will be served for this dog. We are not playing and are not afraid of anybody.’
She said Kimberly Goddard, daughter of late Cleveland meteorologist and animal activist Dick Goddard, is involved, and they want to ‘make sure this man will never do this to any other family.’
A memorial for Dixie after a the dog was shot dead by a police officer in Lorain, Ohio
‘He should go to jail. He should rot. I don’t want him to shoot somebody else. He needs to be off the streets. There were innocent bystanders nearby,’ owner Tammie Kerns said
She said Palmer showed no remorse in the video, and that the footage highlighted everything wrong he did.
The body camera footage was released ‘in order for the department to be fully transparent about the incident,’ according to a statement by Acting Police Chief Captain Michael Failing on Wednesday.
Failing said the department would ‘conduct a thorough investigation into the circumstances that led to the use of force.’
‘We know the public wants to know more about what happened, which is why we’re moving quickly to gather the facts,’ Failing wrote. ‘We will provide that information as soon as we know more.’
A peaceful protest rally has been scheduled July 7 at the Lorain Municipal Court by the ‘Justice for Dixie’ Concerned Citizens.
The rally is planned to ‘show our support for the family of Dixie and express our request for the immediate removal of Officer Elliot Palmer from the Lorain Police Department,’ according to one group member.
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