Deputy Serving Papers Shoots Man's Tethered Dog, Got Wrong House

Chris | InformationLiberation
Sep. 01, 2012

A Sheriff's deputy serving child support papers walked onto a man's property and shot his tethered dog for allegedly charging at him. The home had a large "beware of dog" sign, but the deputy claims not to have seen it. After murdering the man's dog, he went to serve him child support papers, but it turns out he got the wrong house. The police claim the address was given to them by a court, but the man has lived in his home for five years, and he "d[oes]n't even know who that guy is."

The County Sheriff is defending his deputy's actions, and said he'd "rather have" the man's dog die than "one of [his] deputies needing several surgeries because he got attacked by the dog."

Via WSPA:

SPARTANBURG, SC -- Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright is defending a deputy who killed a tethered dog on Monday.

"I hate that the man lost his dog, I really do," says Wright. "But I'd rather have that than one of my deputies needing several surgeries because he got attacked by the dog."

The dog's owner, Richard Woodruff, says the deputy could have easily avoided the animal and ignored a warning sign. He also says the deputy really had no business being at his home on Quartermaster Road.

Woodruff says around 11:30 Monday morning, he heard his 8-year old shepherd mix, Diamond, barking. And then he heard a gunshot.

[...]The deputy came to Woodruff's house to serve child support papers on a man who doesn't live at that address.

"I've lived here five years and I don't even know who that guy is," says Woodruff. "They had the wrong house."

Wright says his deputies have to rely on the addresses they are given by the court system when they serve papers.

"At one time (the intended recipient) was living there," says Wright. He says Sgt. Boutin will not be disciplined.

It's rather hard to believe the deputy failed to notice an allegedly aggressive barking dog, I would assume the dog was likely stretching his tether to the max as soon as he saw the deputy, as that's the behavior of every aggressive chained up dog I've ever seen.

Did the deputy simply shoot the dog as a matter of convenience? We'll likely never know.

What we do know is he got the wrong house, he killed a completely innocent man's dog for ultimately no reason, and he will face no punishment as a result.

Fortunately, the man is filing a lawsuit against the city. Unfortunately, rather than the police paying a settlement out of their own pocket for the damages they caused, they will simply loot taxpayers to pay the settlement, and they will also loot taxpayers to pay for their lawyers to defend them against the same taxpayers they're looting and ruling over. Alas, that's how "our" system of law-enforcement socialism "works."

HT: Tom Lynch
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Chris runs the website InformationLiberation.com, you can read more of his writings here. Follow infolib on twitter here.