FLORIDA CITY, Fla. – A woman from Florida City is outraged after she said a police officer knocked on her front door Tuesday morning and shot her dog when it ran outside.
The dog's owner, Gillian Palacios, told Local 10 News that the officer knocked on her door at 832 SW Seventh St. to inform her that she had left her car door open.
She said her 2-year-old, 40-pound bulldog-mix Duchess, ran outside and was shot three times in the head by the officer.
RAW FOOTAGE DISCLAIMER: Video contains graphic content that some viewers may find disturbing.
Palacios said the officer told her, "Your dog charged me," and then left, telling her that Animal Services would be by to pick up the dog.
"She was curious. She wasn't barking (and) she wasn't growling," Palacios said. "There was no reason for him to think she was aggressive in any way."
The Palacios family fosters and rescues dogs in the area and said it was barbaric how the officer killed their rescue dog.
"There were a million things he could have done other than shoot her three times in the head," Palacios said.
Florida City police spokesman Officer Ken Armenteros confirmed that one of the department's officers shot a dog Tuesday morning, and said the police department is "gathering all the facts at this time."
"We don't have the luxury of hind sight," Armenteros said. "We have to use the information that is given to us in a split second. So, the officer has to make that decision with the information that he has available."
Follow Local 10 News on Twitter @WPLGLocal10