Wait, what? That’s the obvious conclusion Katy Sweeny draws. She writes for the Chico Enterprise-Record. Her article is re-printed at correctionsone.com and ledes with this gem: ” The Chico man who shot a Sacramento police dog Friday and was then killed by an officer would likely still be alive if he was not released from the Butte County Jail because of overcrowding.” Like Curley, Lucus Webb was just a victim of soicumstance. Apparently, the fact that he missed two court appearances, boosted a car, led a Sacramento cop on a car chase and shot a police dog (not pictured above) wasn’t a factor . . .

As Katy sees it, poor Lucus is dead because the heartless masters of the Butte County Jail ruthlessly let him go due to overcrowding. Court-ordered inmate releases force counties with too little hoosegow space to let crooks go on their own recognizance. Webb was in for “carrying a dirk or dagger.”

“When you have overcrowded jails, they are making the best choices,” (Butte County District Attorney Mike) Ramsey said of jail staff. “Do we release a rapist, a murderer, a serial burglar or release this guy who had a knife down his pants?”

They chose the guy with the knife down his pants.

About 9:50 a.m. Friday, Sacramento police tried to stop a car stolen from Chico near Broadway and 24th Street in the capital city, but the driver led them on a chase, police reported. The car almost hit a group of children.

Officers soon found a man and woman on foot near Riverside Boulevard and Robertson Way.

Police arrested the woman, Leslie McCulley, 28, also of Chico, the Sacramento Bee reported.

The man ran into a backyard and fired multiple rounds at an officer, hitting police dog Bodie in the face and paw, police reported. The officer returned fire, killing the man.

Bodie was rushed to an animal hospital and is now recovering, police reported. He is a 4-year-old German Shepherd and has been with the Sacramento Police Department for a year.

Sure is a good thing (most) law abiding Californians can’t carry a gun or someone could really have gotten hurt.

27 COMMENTS

  1. I really feel bad for the poor dog, but at least the scumbag got what he deserved.

    • I do find it somewhat humorous that the cops will shoot and kill your dog for no reason at all but if you shoot one of theirs it’s the same as shooting a human LEO.

      • “The man ran into a backyard and fired multiple rounds at an officer, hitting police dog Bodie in the face and paw, police reported. The officer returned fire, killing the man.”

        I think the guy got shot because he was in the process of shooting at the officer who shot him, not because he shot the dog.
        Just a wild guess.

    • Sad about the poor pup, but otherwise dead crim = happy ending..

      Crazy glad not to be in CA!

  2. She writes for a media organization whose readers have a financial interest in the state not cutting budgets and letting felons out early. Their world view is that probably the prisons should be priority #1 in getting whatever money they need, longer sentences for all convicted, tougher laws, and easier convictions.

    • OK, and there is a Preposition to repeal the three strikes law.
      When will we learn that some people just belong behind bars?

      • I have an interest in cutting budgets and letting (certain) felons out ‘early,’ I also desperately want to see the death penalty and the 3 strikes laws repealed (I am very much in favor of strong castle doctrine and stand your ground laws, as well as constitutional carry).
        Not all crimes and criminals are the same, a one size fit all approach, like 3 strikes, can mean treating theft of golf clubs the same as pedophilia.
        Prisons ARE overpopulated. I think there are 2 great solutions to this problem:
        1) The end – or massive change in response – of vice crimes. This includes much of the drug war, prostitution, gambling, etc. This will mean less “criminals” and more legal businesses and consumers. The benefits do not stop there, surrounding crimes, such as violet enforcement, robbery to support habits, etc. would also be greatly reduced.
        2)A Victim Restitution based justice system replacing a punishment based system. – Making financial amends to the victim (or victims family) is better than jailing someone, and then taxing the victim to keep the offender locked up. It also allows the offender to hopefully improve her/his life and maybe increase the number of 2 parent households.

        There may well still be a need for high security psychiatric hospitals and prisons, but that need can be greatly reduced and reserved only for the habitual and violent offenders. Those who present a clear danger to others.

        • I am posting at blinding speed.
          Gee…you sort of sound Libertarian? Really, not an all bad post and I have a libertarian lawyer friend who espouses the same views.

      • Actually, there are two distinct issues that coincide to increase the population of offenders in the community. First there is a federal court order, later encompassed with a new state “early release” law, requiring that 32000 inmates in the prison system be released early to correct an on-going problem with overcrowding. Felons are paroled, and their parole is overseen at the local level so that the State doesn’t have to pay for it. Needless to say, there has been an awful lot of re-offending going on. (Sometimes I wonder if these guys are just truing to get back in prison, or whether its their meth addictions at play.) So that’s one issue. The second issue that the state funding of county (local) jails has been severly cut, resulting in a substantial number of staff reductions at the jails. State guidelines mandate a certain ration of jailers to prisoners, the result of which is that the local jails are overcrowded and have now installed turnstiles. Most “nonviolent” felons (burglary, auto theft, drug offenses, drunk driving, etc) are released OR from jail within 24 hours, free to re-offend, which many of them do. They don’t stay locked up until their bond amount is in excess of $50,000 in my county–anything less and it’s a get out of jail free card. To add to the mix, the Nortenos have set up a presence in town to peddle narcotics, mostly meth, so we have a bunch of strung out methheads always looking for easy targets so that they can score.

        • Hmmm….I really wonder if anyone has even questioned Leslie McCulley about the house that she was staying at……that MYSTERIOUSLY burned down to the ground and almost killed 5 people at 3325 esplanade in Chico on May 11th…..a house that her grandmother, Laura Brogard, owned. Unfortunately, Laura passed away in April. Also….the car that they stole on the 13th….just happened to be in the same area….pretty much next door. WEIRD!

      • Agreed. Some people do belong behind bars and doing controlled labor after committing crimes. Personally, I think prisoners should be forced to work for food and entertainment and to pay off their cost to incarcerate.

  3. Police kill your dog? A curt “oops.” Kill a police dog? Jail-time, dog gets memorial in local paper. Some animals are more equal than others.

  4. This story is just wrong on so many levels. First of all, the cops are supposed to shoot the dog. Believe me, that isn’t so easy with a chihuahua, ’cause the little yappers are quick and agile. Then, a couple of dozen cops are supposed to fire about a thousand rounds at the bad guy, getting about ten hits on him so that the press can report that the bad guy “died in a hail of bullets.” That’s really important. Then the bad guy’s family is supposed to say that he was always a good boy and this was so unlike him. Then all the cops involved get two weeks off with pay to recover from their trauma and pound some suds.

  5. Pretty sure he’d be alive if he decided not to be a criminal scumbag, then fire at police.

    Wary as I am of LEO double standards, this sounds justified; it wasn’t like he walked up, shot the dog, then ran, sounds more like he was engaged in a firefight with police and the dog was hit.

  6. ” The Chico man who shot a Sacramento police dog Friday and was then killed by an officer would likely still be alive if he was not released from the Butte County Jail because of overcrowding.”

    Every once in a great while, all is right with the world and things make sense. Or as Paulie on the Sopranos says: “They let these guys out too soon. Obviously this one wasn’t rehabullitated yet.”

  7. all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others…George Orwell, Animal Farm

    it’s good to hear the proper animal died that day…

  8. Why show a picture of a police dog if it’s not the one from the incident? Don’t you think we know what a police dog looks like?

    All kidding aside, it’s usual for there to be a hell of an outcry when the cops kill someone, but I wonder if we’ll hear much about this particular incident. Does the dead perp lose any right to sympathy and (mostly phony) outrage because he shot a dog?

  9. Here in Kalifornia people gripe their heads off (polite form of b***h) about the early release of criminals due to Prison overcrowding. BUT whenever the State has tried to build new Prisons, the same people gripe their heads off about having a Prison within a 100 miles of their homes, and eventually (historically) have won the fight. Hence, no new Prisons + overcrowding of existing facilities = early release of Prisoners, many of whom go out and resume their chosen lives of crime. Now, the State is so broke (for reasons of many other flaws in the State) that it is not financially possible to build additional Prisons.
    Personally, I agree with Xaq Fixx and Mark N’ s comments (above), particularly the idea of repealing 3-Strikes Laws and decriminalizing a lot of essentially victimless crimes and the impact of cutting Staff at existing Prisons that forces early release of those likely to re-offend (however, this is due to the fiscal crises of State and Local governments).
    Many of these no-win issues could be relieved if Kalifornia would come to its senses and allow ordinary citizens to open-carry any type of loaded firearm thereby making criminal activity more dangerous to the criminal perpetrators. Of course, then, a large number would end-up on State Welfare…so it goes.

  10. I am a family member and you are right if you knew the Lucus that we know you would think the same thing, he was nice and caring and had a huge heart, he would give the shirt off his back. You see what is in black and white and what the press wants you to see. He didn’t make good choices, he was definitely spiraling down, he was arrested 2 times and it appears they didn’t think anything of it, doesn’t make them wrong it just is what it is. I was told that the reason Lucus shot the dog, and I am not saying it was right, was because they were telling the dog to attack Lucus so he tried to defend himself from this dog. I feel sorry for Bodie, however they put Bodie in harms way when they make them attack and they have no way to protect themselves, the only way Lucus felt he could was by shooting, so the office they are talking about him shooting is the dog, not the officers. Still again I am not saying it is right what he did. But I am really sickened that I keep hearing people say good job scumbag off the street. If that was your brother would you still say the same thing? I don’t think so. Nor would you like it if your brothers children had to see not only the news but all these people say these offensive statements only because they don’t know him. So you can say that the family knew a different Lucus because we do. This was not in his character that we saw, we didn’t see this Lucus when he was around us…so stop trying to make it out like we can’t see what he did, and we can’t see what he did was wrong, because we do and it is heartbreaking on so many levels, how about a little respect for the fact that someones family member died. It is hard enough to grieve the death and the entire situation without people saying everything that they “know”. The police tell you what makes them better in a horrible situation and of course everything that they know bad about the person that committed the crime. Bodie is going to recover, someone donated enough money for the police department to get another dog. We didn’t get a new Lucus, and without paying for him and their reports that we don’t want, they wont even let us have his body without paying a fee. There is no programs to help either, because that is right, right? I hope people take into consideration that Lucus is not here to hear what you are saying but his family still is and it is like living this horrible nightmare over and over again on so many levels.

    • If it was your family member you would wish it too… so yes Lucus I do hope you are resting in peace now.

  11. Hmmm….I really wonder if anyone has even questioned Leslie McCulley about the house that she was staying at……that MYSTERIOUSLY burned down to the ground and almost killed 5 people at 3325 esplanade in Chico on May 11th…..a house that her grandmother, Laura Brogard, owned. Unfortunately, Laura passed away in April. Also….the car that they stole on the 13th….just happened to be in the same area….pretty much next door. WEIRD!

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