YORK, Pa. — Lebanon County residents want accountability after police shot a pet dog Wednesday.
Police were called to Tiffany Lane Wednesday morning after a one-year-old German Shepard wandered into a neighbor's yard.
“The father of my children was outside with my smaller dog, and the dog came from the front of the yard and went towards where the swings were at,” said Kimberlee, a witness to the shooting. “He just sat there and laid there.”
The witness said that she tried luring the dog with water before she called police for help.
In a statement, Lebanon Police said that responding officers called the Humane Society and Dog Warden to assist with the stray dog.
“They didn’t do anything much, they said they were waiting for help,” said the witness. “Also, the first thing they said was, ‘I really hope I don’t have to shoot the dog.'”
After not getting additional help, police tried using a catch pole to capture the dog. Police then tased the dog when it tried getting out of the catch pole, before shooting it in the head.
The entire incident was captured on Kimberlee’s home security camera. “I screamed, I cried, I was traumatized and heartbroken,” she said.
The dog was not a stray, he was a German Shepard named Gunner who escaped from his house on North First Street.
In a statement, police justified the shooting saying the dog was growling at Kimberlee, and acting aggressively towards officers. Kimberlee and Gunner’s owner disagree with the statement.
“I never said the dog was aggressive those words never came out of my mouth,” said Kimberlee. “I don’t know where they got that from.”
Lebanon Mayor Sherry Capello called the incident a tragedy and says an internal review of the incident will be conducted.
“We will do an entire review of the incident and look at our policies look at the actions taken see if anything was done wrong or not,” said Mayor Capello.
Kimberlee is hoping the officers who shot the dog are held accountable for the incident.
“And also I would hope that they would train their police to better handle the situation, because it’s obvious from the video that the dog wasn’t aggressive," she said.