A family in Arkansas was left devastated when an investigator nonchalantly shoots down their dog for barking at him after he drove down the wrong driveway.
The investigator with the Faulkner County Sheriff’s Office, James Freeman, went to Autumn Hills Road on November 9 for a sex offender compliance check.
Freeman went to 72 Autumn Hills for the check, but was told that the sex offender lived at the next address, which prompted him to go to to 76 Autumn Hills road where Chris Coiner, the dog’s owner, lives.
According to the statement released by the sheriff’s office, Freeman went to “the property listed as the subject’s address” but “there are several mobile homes at the 76 Autumn Hills Road address that are not distinguishable by letter or number.”
As the investigator get out of his car, the three-year-old Terrier mix Clide started barking at him, and shot the dog in response, killing him instantly.
“I was livid, I was livid with feelings and he didn’t care one bit,” Coiner said.
Coiner recorded his interaction with Freeman after the shooting, where he can be heard shouting, “Get off my property, you shot and killed my G****** dog!”
“He did not make any attempt to get away from it, he didn’t make any attempt to get back in his vehicle, all he did was shoot the dog because he was barking at him,” Coiner said in an interview.
“My daughter was coming to the door and said somebody was in the driveway. My girlfriend watched it out the window, the dog was not attacking him, the dog was barking, in my yard, on private property.”
However, the investigation conducted claimed that Freeman had walked around the other side of the home after telling the dog “to get back” and had “his back against the mobile home and no way to escape the dog” when it “lunged at him.”
The investigation concluded that “no policies or laws were violated,” and multiple witnesses said the dog “had a history of acting aggressively towards humans.”
Coiner strongly refuted the claims.
“If you’re at the address that you’re serving a warrant at, I could see using force to be there. But, if you know you’re not at the address on the warrant, there is no reason to use any force for any reason,” he argued.
“He was his buddy and we lost a family member,” he added.
“He’s at work today and my protecting guard dog here will never work again because he killed him yesterday.”