An Alliance woman is demanding answers after an officer shot and killed her pit bull.
Police received a call Friday afternoon of three dogs were on the loose. They say an officer located the dogs a few streets over, but opened fire when one of the dogs charged at him.
But Morgan Furry, the owner of the dogs, says she sees it differently. She says the dog was playful, not aggressive.
The body camera footage shows Alliance police officer Josh Tenney’s point of view - the moment he located the three dogs reported on the loose.
"Come here, puppy, come here,” Tenney whistles.
Furry says her fiancee Mark let the dogs, two pit bulls and one rottweiller, out into the backyard. They escaped by going under their fence.
“He immediately got in the car and went to go look for them,” Furry said.
Police had already received a call from someone who had spotted the dogs. Furry says she, too, made a call to police.
“So I told Mark, 'hey go get them they were just spotted on Salzburg about 5 minutes ago,'” said Furry.
At the same time, Officer Tenney was trying to call them over from inside a local car wash.
“Come here...hey… hey!” Penney calls out in the video.
Things escalated when the dogs came toward him and he opened fire.
“He did not have any other choice,” said Sergeant Michael Yarian.
Sgt. Yarian says the dog charged at Officer Tenney.
“The chief said he was within policy," Sgt. Yarian said.
But Furry says she doesn’t see it that way.
“I don’t understand why the police officer got out of the car and approached three dogs he didn’t know," she said. "They would have been fine until Mark got there."
She says the hardest part is explaining to her girls, why their dog, China, is no longer with them.
“How do you explain to your three-year-old that your dog is not coming home,” Furry said through tears.
