Cisco the dog gunned down for barking at a cop who was accosting his owner.

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By Sami K. Martin , Christian Post Contributor
April 20, 2012|7:57 am

An Austin, TX man is mourning the loss of his dog, Cisco, after police mistakenly responded to a domestic disturbance call. The public has been outraged at the responding policeman's actions, given that he was not supposed to be on the man's property in the first place.

Austin police responded to a domestic disturbance call at the wrong address, said Michael Paxton, Cisco's owner. The dispute was actually right next door, but an unfortunate series of events led to the death of Cisco. When officer Thomas Griffin arrived on Paxton's doorstep, he immediately drew his gun and kept it focused on Paxton, he told KXAN.

Cisco, upon hearing the commotion, began barking at officer Griffin. He could be heard yelling at Paxton, "Get your hands up" and "Get your dog" by the officer's dashcam video. A shot then rang out and Cisco was left dead, Paxton left asking the officer why.

Austin police have apologized to Paxton for the mix-up and shooting, but there is nothing that can be done to bring Cisco back. Although the shooting is being investigated, Griffin remains on active duty.

"We are not going to second-guess our officer," Sgt. David Daniels told KXAN. "He is distraught about this."

In the aftermath of the shooting, Paxton has set up a Facebook page entitled Justice for Cisco in order to raise awareness of animal-related shootings. It has over 90,000 "likes" so far and is sparking intense debate and petitions calling for officers to be educated about animal safety.

Chief Art Acevedo and Paxton appeared on the Texas radio morning show "Dudley and Bob Morning Show" to discuss the incident.

"I want to say I am sorry on behalf of all the members of the department," Acevedo said. "Believe it or not, we are animal lovers just like anyone else."

This is not the first time the Austin PD has killed an innocent animal, and Texans are hoping that this second shooting will push them to enact policy change. In 2000, an officer responding to a home alarm shot and killed an Australian Sheppard mix named "Tawny."

"We thought through our efforts that it wouldn't happen again. Unfortunately, in seeing what happened to Michael and Cisco, it just reminded us that despite our efforts it did happen again," Christi Davis O'Brien told reporters. Tawny was her dog, and her death led the O'Brien family to petition for change.

"We were told there would be a class developed that all cadets would take on how to deal with domestic animals when they reported to a home. And that class would also be offered to officers as part of the continuing education they receive every year," O'Brien added.

"It's disheartening to see that not only the policy's not continued, but it's likely it was never even implemented," she said.

I really think this comment one lady left on an article about this is just so true...

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Elizabeth Conley
10:57 AM on April 20, 2012

Citizens need to rethink their interactions with police. If your home security alarm goes off while you're not home police will break in to your residence. They will do damage, they will invade your privacy, and they may shoot your pet or accidentally allow your pet to escape and become lost. Should you have such ...more
Citizens need to rethink their interactions with police.

If your home security alarm goes off while you're not home police will break in to your residence. They will do damage, they will invade your privacy, and they may shoot your pet or accidentally allow your pet to escape and become lost. Should you have such an alarm system? Will such an alarm system really make you safer?

Citizens who call in domestic dispute complaints place the entire neighborhood at risk. Police show up armed and ready to rumble. They are known to beat up couples, sometimes even killing and maiming them. Police are also know to discharge their weapons promiscuously and indescriminately, sending a hail of bullets in the general direction of stray dogs Given these serious consequences, is every instance where raised voices and shattered crockery are overheard a valid reason to "loose the dogs of war" on your neighbors?

If your friend or family member is depressed and seems suicidal to you, calling the police is a really, really bad call. Police tend to assault supposedly suicidal people, incarcerate them and sometimes even maiming or killing them. The same goes for arguments with children and handicapped members of your family. Try to solve your interpersonal problems some way other than just dialing 911. You will be very sorry if police beat, taser or even kill your family member in response to your call.

Citizens need to become more sensible, because in many regions our police have become dangerous. The careless decision to dial 911 in response to a minor problem may result in a deep personal tragedy. Think, people. Put more thought into your household security plan and relationships with neighbors and family. "Just dial 911" is not the best solution to every tiny little problem.

It really sucks that this is true, but it is. The cops are the problem at least as often as they are solution anymore. And that when they are not straight out the bad guys to begin with. Anymore they are taught to draw that gun and fire without cause or reason. I wish the dog owner had drawn and shot the cop after he shot Cisco. Freaking cop was trespassing with a drawn gun and shooting a dog on sight. He wasn't even out of his car but about five seconds before he was shooting. And then he stands there lying about what happened right on tape.

EDIT: The reporter says, "In less than twenty seconds the officer fired his gun." Actually I counted and from when he got out of the car to when he shot Cisco was about 8-9 seconds. He walked straight into the guys house without knocking or announcing himself, with a gun drawn, started screaming at the owner, then shot the dog on sight. I still wish the owner would have shot the cop.




Get those kitties in heaven Cisco.

Cops are out of control.

Cop Shoots Family Dog at Wrong Address
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=15389054

Animal Control Officer Shoots Puppy
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=10322017









And this last one shows the idiot cops shooting a cow for no reason other than because it's out of its pen and they are to stupid to walk up to it and get it under control.

These are the kinds of morons that are given guns to "police" the public? They can't even handle little dogs or cows.

About 4 weeks ago I was in a recently vacated home I needed to inspect right away for a quick turn around for the real estate company. It was early in the morning no power in the home so I was using a flashlight. When I finish my inspection and come out the door I have four cops with drawn guns pointed at me. They yell at me to get my hands up and once I quickly explain who I am and carrying they say I can relax and show them both of my I.D.s. No roughing me up or putting me in handcuffs or being jerks. And I deal with a lot of police in the central Florida area from evictions to break ins. Ive found all of them to be professional and like able. Even the ones who drew guns on me.

Are there are some bad cops out there? Sure. Is it rampant? I dont think so. The officer had to make a judgement call. The friendliest of dogs can get quite agressive if they feel there is a threat. He didnt know there was a address mistake. The dog was probably acting agressive and if the dog did attack this guy he didnt know at the time wasnt a bad guy might have taken advantage of such a situation.

The others were really, really bad except for the last one. A cow running around on the road and this cow ends up getting hit by a car goes through a windshield and kills someone. Then the public is asking why didnt they stop the cow with force. Plus I would have done the same thing I dont know anything about handling a rampant 500 pound cow that could trample me without a thought. And I certainly wouldnt risk spending time looking for someone who could.

Well as far as Cisco... First the cop had no reason to trespass on private property. Yes he'd received a call about domestic violence and thought he was at the right address, that gives him no right to trespass. He should have walked up to the door and knocked and took it from there.

Second, he shouldn't have had his gun out. Just because some anonymous person called up said a neighbor was hitting his girlfriend is no reason to show up with a drawn weapon.

Now if he'd shown up and seen violence, or heard cries, etc then he'd have had a reason to draw a weapon or trespass, as it is he had neither.

Third, if the cop wasn't threatening to kill the owner for no reason, he'd have been able to restrain his dog. If the cop had walked up to him like a human being instead of Rambo, without a drawn weapon and started talking to him, when the dog came the owner wouldn't have been terrified to move and would have got the dog.

Fourth, dogs can smell things we'd never even imagine let alone smell. For example, they can smell the terror smell that an animal or person gives off when badly scared.

So this is what this dog knew... his human and he were playing catch the round thing in yard, "oh joy!" Suddenly some stranger he'd never seen or smelled shows up and starts screaming at his human while displaying aggressive body language . His human begins displaying submissive body language and emitting terror smell. "Oh no, my human is in danger." Protect the pack response kicks in, which means bark to scare the bad stranger away and get between stranger and my human in case he tries to hurt him.

Next thing he knew he was dead.

This cop was at fault. He did everything wrong from start to finish. It was his wrong actions that caused the whole thing. If he'd not have had a drawn gun for no reason, and hadn't started threatening to kill the owner, the dog would never have got worked up.



That's the problem with cops today. They are taught to pull that gun all the time. And all that does is create problems. Why'd they pull guns on you? Did you set off an alarm? Doubt it since you said there was no power. Most likely some neighbor called them. But they didn't know you from Adam, how do they know you're not the owner or somebody authorized to be there, as you were. They didn't. So why were they responding with drawn guns? Did the neighbor claim you were waving around a gun, or shooting one? If so, they'd have had a reason to respond with drawn guns. But I doubt that happened.

Do you realize how close you came to dying? If they'd have seen you coming towards the door with something that looked vaguely gun like in your hands they'd have shot you. And they fact that you were carrying would have only helped them out. Because by the time the shooting was investigated, that gun like looking object you'd had in your hand, would have been replaced with your gun.

And all for nothing because all you were doing was your job. But they weren't properly doing theirs. You might think it's ok to have cops pointing loaded weapons at you, but I don't. I've been pulled over for speeding (10 over) in a panel van, clearly marked with the college decals I worked for on the sides, ON CAMPUS by city police and had them pull guns on me. I could see one come up the passenger side, in the side mirror, with his gun out and aimed at the back of my head through the windows in the side doors. Meanwhile the other came up to my window as if to make a normal traffic stop, but he had his left hand in his coat pocket the whole time... he was pointing a a back up weapon at me. My roommate who was a criminal justice major told me that after the fact. He said they are taught to do that in class. I didn't even believe him, so I called up one of the CJ professors and was told that is true. So I had two guns pointed at me for going 35 in a 25 on campus in a campus vehicle. I was pissed. I'm still pissed fifteen years later.

Did they have a reason to draw guns on me? Hell no. It's not as if there were reports of a stolen campus van, or any van, or any crimes involving the same. They just pulled weapons and pointed them at me for no reason, well actually the one wasn't even pulled it was pointed at me clandestinely.

Now I'm normally a very calm and reasonable person, I rarely get pissed off and feel like kicking somebodies @ss. But I was very pissed off by them threatening my life, but I kept myself under control. Now you take somebody who is much easier prone to getting enraged and put them in that situation. That person starts screaming at the cops or gets out and next thing you know they shoot him dead. All because they are pointing guns at him for no reason and threatening his life for speeding ten miles over.

Pulling their d@mned guns all the time when they have no real justification to do so, leads to unjustified shootings and escalating the situation much further than it should have ever gone.

I'm a dog person, that is terrible. The cops around here are strange. If the cops are called they cite you. Their policy is who ever calls is innocent no matter what the caller may have done to provoke the situation. I understand caution on a domestic dispute call but shooting a animal is just wrong.

My dad has a kennel of 14 dogs and if you shout at him or slap him on the back and startle him you will get a very vocal response along with a full view of some pearly white teeth. We don't shout or hit, that is just not who we are but our neighbors shout and argue all the time and it does unset the dogs. The dogs are very protective of me and they will position themselves between me and any man who comes to our property. Needless to say we don't get alot of company but we prefer the dogs anyway. If you want to sit in the best seat in house move the dog if you dare.

eber322 wrote:

Well as far as Cisco... First the cop had no reason to trespass on private property. Yes he'd received a call about domestic violence and thought he was at the right address, that gives him no right to trespass. He should have walked up to the door and knocked and took it from there.

Second, he shouldn't have had his gun out. Just because some anonymous person called up said a neighbor was hitting his girlfriend is no reason to show up with a drawn weapon.

Now if he'd shown up and seen violence, or heard cries, etc then he'd have had a reason to draw a weapon or trespass, as it is he had neither.

Third, if the cop wasn't threatening to kill the owner for no reason, he'd have been able to restrain his dog. If the cop had walked up to him like a human being instead of Rambo, without a drawn weapon and started talking to him, when the dog came the owner wouldn't have been terrified to move and would have got the dog.

Fourth, dogs can smell things we'd never even imagine let alone smell. For example, they can smell the terror smell that an animal or person gives off when badly scared.

So this is what this dog knew... his human and he were playing catch the round thing in yard, "oh joy!" Suddenly some stranger he'd never seen or smelled shows up and starts screaming at his human while displaying aggressive body language . His human begins displaying submissive body language and emitting terror smell. "Oh no, my human is in danger." Protect the pack response kicks in, which means bark to scare the bad stranger away and get between stranger and my human in case he tries to hurt him.

Next thing he knew he was dead.

This cop was at fault. He did everything wrong from start to finish. It was his wrong actions that caused the whole thing. If he'd not have had a drawn gun for no reason, and hadn't started threatening to kill the owner, the dog would never have got worked up.



That's the problem with cops today. They are taught to pull that gun all the time. And all that does is create problems. Why'd they pull guns on you? Did you set off an alarm? Doubt it since you said there was no power. Most likely some neighbor called them. But they didn't know you from Adam, how do they know you're not the owner or somebody authorized to be there, as you were. They didn't. So why were they responding with drawn guns? Did the neighbor claim you were waving around a gun, or shooting one? If so, they'd have had a reason to respond with drawn guns. But I doubt that happened.

Do you realize how close you came to dying? If they'd have seen you coming towards the door with something that looked vaguely gun like in your hands they'd have shot you. And they fact that you were carrying would have only helped them out. Because by the time the shooting was investigated, that gun like looking object you'd had in your hand, would have been replaced with your gun.

And all for nothing because all you were doing was your job. But they weren't properly doing theirs. You might think it's ok to have cops pointing loaded weapons at you, but I don't. I've been pulled over for speeding (10 over) in a panel van, clearly marked with the college decals I worked for on the sides, ON CAMPUS by city police and had them pull guns on me. I could see one come up the passenger side, in the side mirror, with his gun out and aimed at the back of my head through the windows in the side doors. Meanwhile the other came up to my window as if to make a normal traffic stop, but he had his left hand in his coat pocket the whole time... he was pointing a a back up weapon at me. My roommate who was a criminal justice major told me that after the fact. He said they are taught to do that in class. I didn't even believe him, so I called up one of the CJ professors and was told that is true. So I had two guns pointed at me for going 35 in a 25 on campus in a campus vehicle. I was pissed. I'm still pissed fifteen years later.

Did they have a reason to draw guns on me? Hell no. It's not as if there were reports of a stolen campus van, or any van, or any crimes involving the same. They just pulled weapons and pointed them at me for no reason, well actually the one wasn't even pulled it was pointed at me clandestinely.

Now I'm normally a very calm and reasonable person, I rarely get pissed off and feel like kicking somebodies @ss. But I was very pissed off by them threatening my life, but I kept myself under control. Now you take somebody who is much easier prone to getting enraged and put them in that situation. That person starts screaming at the cops or gets out and next thing you know they shoot him dead. All because they are pointing guns at him for no reason and threatening his life for speeding ten miles over.

Pulling their d@mned guns all the time when they have no real justification to do so, leads to unjustified shootings and escalating the situation much further than it should have ever gone.

He had every right to go on that property if someone called with there life in danger on what he thought was the property. Its not his fault he received the wrong address. And I fully expect him to have his gun drawn at a call for violent domestic fight. If he didnt hear cries and walked away to find out later its because the person had been silenced and later killed OH THE OUTRAGE we hear then. No he did the right thing.

He wasnt threatening to kill the owner he was protecting himself from possible harm.

We will just have to disagree that the cop had any fault in this.

No with me I was sent to a home they needed evaluated right away that just moved out. I had a full day already so I had to make it really early. Grabbed my flashlight and did my inspection. A neighbor saw the flashlight through the windows told the cops that someone just moved out and it must be a burglar. Its not the best area so people are a little jumpy there. No one claimed they even saw me just the flashlight through the windows. I actually had my back to them locking the door and had a flashlight in my hands. A black lock box for the door knob and a pad of paper. When he yelled get your hands up I turned around then put them up. The guys checking if it was a burglary didnt even have there fingers on the triggers so I dont think my life was hardly in danger unless I would have reached for the back of my pants.


Its the second time I have had a guns pointed at me from a cop. First time when I was freshly on my own in a rough area and they had a gang fight above me with a shoot out. After my duck and cover and waiting a few minutes I decide to walk out of my porch and take a peak above me. When I didnt see anything I was ready to walk in and had cops with machine guns on one side and uniformed with handguns on the other all pointing at me yelling get your goddamn fracking hands up. I explain it came from upstairs and off they go.

So I have no problem with the police being extra careful about wanting to come home. Keep them well trained with those guns and im fine with it.