Wait, Who Are The Responsible Ones Again?

This cop has no reason to carry a badge. He can’t shoot a wounded animal because he is crying?!?! He hands his weapon over to a civilian?!?! One wonders what this copper will do when faced with the ugly task of having to fire on a human being, if he cries over an animal……….He should be on animal patrol, not law enforcement.

Poor training

How did this guy ever pass Fundamentals of Dog Shooting at the academy?

Unless you (he) are one of those people who loves animals far more than their own species. I have known a good number of them in my life. Because humans have the ability to do both good and evil, they are somehow inferior to animals, who do not.
I can tell you, it’s vexing, and a lot.

Maybe the weeping officer was one. I have no problem with sensitivity in policemen, in fact it’s a refreshing change. But it was his job to take charge in that situation, and he flat-out punked out.

Not long ago we were traveling and spotted a deer that was hit and still alive. I didn’t want my kids to see this so I didnt stop. I called 911 at around 8:00 am and told them where the deer was and they said they would take care of it. On the way back at 6:00pm the deer was still trying to get up. It’s back looked broken and the back legs looked like a pretzel. Knowing there was no hope for rehab and the police failed us and the deer, we put it out of its misery with my pistol. We risked getting in trouble to help that poor thing. We couldn’t watch it suffer one minute longer. It was sad, but needed to be done.

Since then, I’ve wondered if the responding officer just couldn’t do it, or lord knows what.

Yes, police are people too, and some of them suck at their job just as much anybody.

I would have trouble dispatching a wounded animal, but would in the end do it.
A cop……shouldn’t hesitate.
A box full of kittens is a whole other story.
If you don’t have some level of compassion in my book.
You shouldn’t carry a gun. Nor be a Cop.

there is nothing at all with what the leo did at all. he’s from a very different background than us and letting the bystander help him with the situation is completely acceptable . remember, we’re the malita and were here to help.

even dirty harry would tell you “a man’s got to know his limitations.”

I will not attack the cop for not being able to kill when the time came. Training can help you deal with any situation, but no amount of training can completely simulate the real thing. Some people just can not kill.

However, now that this officer knows that he doesn’t have what it takes to be a police officer, it is important for him to find another line of work that is better suited to him, before he causes someone else to get hurt.

The officer is just a product of society today, males end up mommy boys or sociopathic killers and will follow their leaders orders without question.

Do we have a name or anything? Lets blast his barracks with emails and phone calls for his arrest.

Try putting down your own dog with your arm.

That is a tough one there I’m sure. A deer that is suffering, not so much. Sorry.

I would have had the DNR called so i could take it and gutted it on the side of the road.

Had one run into the side of my company trick and if it wouldn’t have made it too far in the woods and I was in a hurry, it would have gone down just that easy.

Deer are majestic creatures but they are food also.

Two does just walked in my yard… no lie!

Deer are just large vermin.

How long did it take to find a photo of a three legged deer on a road?

Sounds like somebody I want on the force, and I’m not joking. Many, many cops are unthinking, inconsiderate, power hungry enforcement drones who enjoy killing animals. This one sounds like a nice guy, not another officer 82nd airborne skinhead.

A doe comes out of the woods and says. I’m not doing that for 2 bucks again…”

I’ll be here all week.

One more reason universal background checks wouldn’t work…

We do know one thing for sure: the officer aced sensitivity training.

so all i gotta do is tell some sissified cop i have a permit from another state and without proof said sissified cop will hand me his nice and fairly new loaded handgun while standing in a crowd? Hell, why not give me that Remington pump or AR you have as well. . . … .

don’t mind the sensitivity, but the stupidity of handing over your duty pistol . . . . .

He probably wouldn’t have had a problem if it was a dog, cops seem to like to shoot dogs.

I’m all for sensitivity and humanity in police officers, but there are certain things a policeman has to be able to do. This one doesn’t have what it takes. Not a bad thing or a good thing, nothing to be ashamed of, just a fact.

Reminds me of an event that happened to me while in the service. Being military law enforcement at the time a call came out of a deer hit on the perimeter road and was interfering with traffic. Many of the patrols showed up and when I arrived my lieutenant was there with several officers standing around the deer. The deer had both front legs broken and couldn’t walk but still alive. I told my lieutenant we needed to put the deer out of its misery as it was suffering and he sated we needed “permission” to shoot the deer from the base commander. Long story short, no permission was granted and the officers were deciding that they were going to beat the deer with club until it died. I told them to just cut its throat as it would be more humane. One officer pulled out his knife and handed it to the lieutenant and the lieutenant said he wasn’t going to do it. No other officer stepped forward and the lieutenant handed me the knife and said, “You do it then”. I took the knife and swiftly cut the deer’s throat and the lieutenant turned and blew his cookies……………..

There’s a lot of “bad cop – so stupid” and etc. Yeah, there’s several “bad idea” moments in the story, but I actually find it kind of comforting that somewhere out there in “us-vs-them-tacticool-LEO-operator” American Police there’s a guy that was able to hand over his gun to a concealed carry guy to shoot a deer.
Yeah, the cop should probably rethink his career. Or maybe not. Maybe that’s EXACTLY the kind of cop we need in America (provided he learns from his safety mistakes this time round and learns to man up in the future).

I’m a police officer who’s also hunted my fair share of deer. A wild animal that is mortally wounded needs to be put down. A deer will run to safety if it is mortally wounded, or will at least make the attempt as long as it lives. If a grown deer is unable to run or stand in the presence of man, it is mortally wounded. It needs to be put down. Since deer can bite, I don’t recommend a knife, although that can be done. The bottom line is that the deer needs to be put down.

That LEO needs to look for a new line if work. I wouldn’t want him as backup for a robbery, carjacking, high speed pursuit, foot chase, or fist fight. If this story is true, than that man needs to go. I might be amenable to a 30 day suspension with remedial training / competency testing if there are mitigating circumstances, but I’d probably just fire that guy.

Harsh, maybe, but we live in a tough world. I don’t appreciate stories where cops demonstrate a lack of courage and conviction necessary to complete the job.

The cop sounds like a punk A– Beeoch!
Funny thing is that most cops don’t have any problem shooting dogs, family pets that are barking during the confusion / disruption.
But for an LEO to just hand their duty weapon over is just stupid and totally unacceptable.
Fire that officer ASAP, before somebody gets hurt or killed.
smitty

I’m not trying to huff up and be an Internet Tough Guy here, but what happens when the LEO sees something more serious than a deer that took the bumper challenge and lost? Police can see some pretty rough things in the line of duty.

And handing your pistol over to a stranger…that just defies sense , if not standard operating procedures.

As for a response, I am not in law enforcement but would have a few suggestions:

1) If this type of incident (deer hit by car, has to be put down) happens on a semi-regular basis, encourage officer to leave/fire. At that point it becomes part of the job requirement.

2) If this incident is pretty rare, counseling/training would suffice with psych evaluation for good measure just in case something was missed.

My reasoning for that suggestion is simple. (NOTE: I am also not a psychologist, I just play one on TV) Events from our formative years can have significant impact on us later in life. A cause for this could be a simple as having to put down a wounded deer in early life due to an overbearing father who was really into hunting. This type of situation would have no impact on other parts of the job as the triggers would be very specific to wounded deer.

Pass the psych= get your job back. Though I would encourage a different line of work, I believe firing would be unnecessary .

Examples of this are grown men breaking down over sights, smells and sounds. Extreme examples of this would be PTSD in veterans, otherwise functional, burly, “man’s men” breaking down into tears over a smell/sound that brings them back to a very unpleasant time.

As for handing his duty weapon off, I guess I am in the minority.

Sounds like a simple transfer/firearm sale. If I sell my Glock to a person I have only met online or are answering an ad, I have no idea if they are a felon/mass murderer. Should I be required to run a background check, just in case?

No. The guy the officer handed the gun to is no more likely to shoot the crowd than the guy I sell my Glock would shoot up a classroom.

Now, whether or not it was professional is certainly a valid argument.

Puts me in the mood for a nice venison roast…..damn, I can’t wait for hunting season

While living in Mich a rabid dog attacked my wife and kids. I stepped outside and shot the dog in the head with a 22 revolver(bearcat). The dog lived and ran home. I called the local Sheriff and when they got to the house they called me up and asked me to go over, with my gun. When I got there the Deputy asked if I could “put the dog down” because he didn’t want the paperwork associated with discharging his sidearm. I did and then buried the dog. Go figure.

It has taken me 10 minutes to think about my response,..to the responses.
First, this place, the 1600 block of Chester Blvd. is part of the urban rural.
They’re a stones throw of really rural. Farmland-rural. I grew up in a mid-
west town very similar to this urban rural-really rural configuration, and a
police officer, under the right circumstances, would have done the same,
and trusted one of the locals to dispatch the suffering animal, with his gun.
If this were to happen anywhere else, yes, it would be unwise, even fatal,
to give your firearm to someone standing in the crowd. As I said, this isn’t
Detroit or Chicago we’re talking about. The officer will earn a reprimand.

Second, there is something I find most unpleasant about some responses.
My uncle; a Marine, who served in some of Korea’s bloodiest battles,(and
2 tours in Vietnam) killed 7 Red Chinese in hand to hand, knife to knife
fighting, yet this man turns into a blubbering mess at the sight of injured
puppies or kittens. I don’t think anyone(in their right mind) would call
into question whether my uncle was lacking in the manly-man virtues of
getting it done, and when the bloody worst of it needed doin’, just because
he gets a little weepy over the suffering of..the vulnerable?..the innocent?
I don’t know the story of the officer in question, I only know I don’t know
enough, to be responding the way some here have. I think I’d rather have
the officer who became emotional over an injured fawn, than the officer
who, without a pause, decided it was a good idea to shoot some kittens.
The way he deals with forest quadrupeds shouldn’t concern me or you.
The way he deals with urban-rural bipeds, the law abiding, or not, should.

And just who is this U.S., grade-A, model citizen that filed the report?
Gee, it wouldn’t happen be the guy that DIDN’T get to shoot the deer?
I wonder how popular this guy is over at the Richmond Five-0?

Hmm…Well, officer Softie does need to grow a pair. I shot my first deer at age 11. Emptied my 30-30 at about 90-150 yds as it moved. When I got up to it, it was still moving so I put a finisher thru its neck, and another for good measure. That was rough for an 11yr old, but I handled it.

As for handing off his gun to someone else, sure its generally bad practice but if I had been there I would probably have volunteered for the duty. I dunno. This strikes me as the kind of thing that would not really occasion comment in Maine. Other than to quietly mock the Officer.

The Temperance of a Monk and the Power of a Gun

Once along a back country way I was driving home with a co worker. I spied a puppy along the way and stopped. We exited the vehicle and found there was not one puppy but seven, along with their mother. She had mange about as bad as I’ve seen and more ticks than any single dog I’ve ever seen in my life. The pups weren’t in much better shape and we had a good look at them since she brought them all to us there alongside the road. With my co-worker standing there I went to the car and retrieved my pistol.
We both, grown men, had tears in our eyes and he asked if we couldn’t save them somehow. The condition of these pups was horrible and their mother was even worse. I walked him through the understanding that neither of us was going to pay for the vetinary care these animals needed, and how allowing them to exist like this wasn’t acceptable. He opted to wait in the car. When I raised the pistol to the mother she lowered her head as if she’d been waiting for it all along. The pups moved about in that random way they do and required me to pin each one between my feet in order to ensure a clean head shot. The whole process took about two minutes. When I returned to the car my friend was so worked up that the mucus streamed from him like I hadn’t seen since the gas chamber. He was beyond being consoled and his condition finally broke my resolve and we cried together all the way home. I explained to him in his driveway how it had to be done; how leaving them without the mercy of a swift death was worse than what had been done. He was able to nod that he understood, but he never looked at me the same way again.
I cried for the first deer I took. It was clear from its struggles that my bullet had hurt it badly and that it wanted very much to live. My grandfather ended its suffering with a second shot as we stood over it. The finality of seeing death come over its visible eye sent my emotions over the edge and tears began to run down my cheeks. My grandfather, a hard man by anyone’s estimate, asked if it was not better that the animal was now dead instead of suffering and I responded honestly that with its death hope had been erased for its survival. My grandfather took issue with that and explained to me that I had erased the possibility of survival when I fired my shot. The natural condition of being predated had sealed this animal’s fate and his follow up shot had only ended its suffering. The lesson was learned; sometimes providing death is a kindness.
Over time I came to understand that it required operable and articulate morality to wield this power of life and death. I’ve ended the lives of more squirrel and deer than I can recall. Many times I’ve been asked to help the sick old pets of acquaintances to find the clearing at the end of the path. I’ve never turned away but it has never been done lightly. I’ve learned that I can kill anything which can die, but also that I cannot bear to see anything suffer. This is what my grandfather wanted me to learn I think.
By his hand unknown and unknowable numbers of chickens and pigs had died. Grandfather killed chickens with his bare hands, ringing their necks while their death throws played out in his hands. He slaughtered hogs with a hammer of his own design, striking them just once each and every blow laying low the animal he struck. I asked him once, when I was a small child, if it hurt them to die like that. He told me that he was sure it did, but that he killed them as quickly and with as little pain as he was able. I never saw grandfather shed tears for the many animals whose lives he ended, but the solemn and methodical way he went about it and his demeanor later suggested to me that he didn’t take it lightly, and that he found no joy in it, but the responsibility was his and the only quarter he could offer these animals was a quick and relatively painless death. He took it very seriously.
Many years later I stopped at the scene of an accident. A car had struck a deer on a lonely road. It disabled the vehicle and left the deer struggling on the asphalt in what were surely its final moments. I checked on the driver and found that everyone was uninjured, of course that is except the deer. I sent the young female driver and her two small children to my car to keep warm. Front the trunk I took out a pistol and returned to the wounded animal to deliver the final blow, checking to see that what was to happen wasn’t visible to the children now warming themselves in my car.
Coup de Grace
This term has taken on connotations from Hollywood that makes it seem like the final predation of a vicious killer. From the French of its origin it translates to ‘the stroke of mercy’ and referenced a kindness done to either a downed animal or to a mortally wounded opponent to end his suffering.
I had just raised the pistol when the highway patrolman turned in. Not wanting to fire a shot that might either spook this sheep dog that had just arrived or that would expose me to prosecution I hesitated and placed my weapon on the hood of the disabled vehicle. The trooper was young, and the wounded deer was clearly having an effect on him. It had still failed to make good an escape as we stood nearby discussing its condition and the fact that it needed to be put down. I offered to do the deed, indicating my weapon on the hood of the vehicle near us, but the trooper insisted that it should be he who fired on it, citing something about the legality of firing a shot on a roadway and other nonsense about safety. I withdrew behind him to allow him to take the shot. He drew his sidearm and took aim. A good amount of time passed but the shot didn’t come. After a moment I advanced and said to him again that I would take the shot. He was visibly relieved and offered me his weapon in what I think was an acknowledgement that it wasn’t of any use to him. I declined the offer and instead retrieved my own and motioning to indicate what I was about to do, took aim and ended the suffering of the downed animal.
I’ve had many years to think about this encounter. I don’t know what became of the young trooper but I suspect and even hope he is out there somewhere providing support to whoever may need it. I like to think that push come to shove, some innocent beset by those who would do them harm, that the young trooper would shoot without hesitation on a human target. I don’t know that he would any more than anyone who hasn’t done it can know it about themselves, but I’d hate to have had that sensitive but helpful sheep dog removed from duty for hesitating to kill a defenseless and unthreatening animal along the side of a cold dark road once in the beginning of his career.
I’ve never known a pistol bullet to ricochet from asphalt, and I’ve never met a person as poor with a pistol as to hit a bystander with a shot aimed at a downed animal at their feet. I find it difficult to conceive that a person who has stopped at the scene of an accident has done so with the intention of causing harm to others if only they could gain possession of an officer’s weapon.
I’ve never thought that officer less of a man for hesitating when there stood next to him someone who would do that which he was loath to do. There was no joy in it, but like my grandfather, it had fallen to me to see this animal to the other side and I was willing, though not enthusiastic.
Like all things, the willingness and ability to kill are a matter of degree. Rather than a black and white prospect, there are many shades of grey when it comes to the circumstances under which one will use lethal force. There may be times when ones bloodlust is high and conversely times when one is loath to kill. Never count someone out of the fight for having once hesitated.

Personally I don’t have a huge problem with anything in this story. I used to hunt. If it moved and was edible I would hunt it, upland birds, waterfowl, deer, squirrel. I hunted after I joined the Army. I went to Desert Storm and killed some people. The first time I went hunting after that I had the chance to shoot a six point buck…and didn’t. Haven’t been hunting since. Been back to Iraq four times since Desert Storm, no problems killing people, animals can’t do it anymore. If I had to, I could hunt to feed my family…I don’t have to so I don’t. The ability to kills an animal and to kill a human are in no way related. I’ve watched the Great White Hunter types who’ve killed bears with bows freeze up solidly in fire fights when they were looking at human beings through their sights.

As far as handing over a service weapon, I don’t have a big problem with it, though I’m sure his supervisors do. People forget that Charles Whitman (the bell tower sniper at UT) was killed by an Austin cop, but the only reason the cops could get to the tower was because a bunch of good old boys with hunting rifles kept him supressed after the Austin PD deputized them.

The only problem I have with the story is that he let his emotions get the best of him and couldn’t do it. If you’re in a position of authority you may have difficult duties that you really, really don’t want to do.

You do them and then cry about it later in private if you have to.

Note: I’m not talking about illegal or immoral tasks.

Sounds risky for the citizen to take the shot… I wouldn’t want the liability. Of course I wouldn’t want the animal to suffer, but when it comes down to it, I’d rather have the animal suffer until animal control shows up, rather than have some person in the crowd file a lawsuit citing a discharge within certain distance of a structure/etc. The cop telling you it’s ok has no bearing, and carries no legal weight.

Since it’s behind a pay wall, I can’t tell, but the passage has no names whatsoever. Not of the officer, the department, or the person reporting the incident. Not reliable without any specifics.

I discussed this with my wife a former Sheriff’s deputy. I’m not sure the officer involved should be criticized for being upset and having compassion for the fawn. What would we rather have, an officer who gets off on killing baby animals maybe? The officer who has trouble shooting the fawn probably isn’t the same officer who will violate your civil rights with aggressive behavior.

Now handing over his service pistol is an issue. He should be reprimanded for that, not fired. Not clearing the scene before the deer was shot, again reprimanded. Crying in front of civilians… his “Man Card” permanently revoked. He should get in trouble, some remedial training, and as far as the Bambi stickers on his locker for the next 6 months…. He is just going to have to suck that up.

Most police officer shootings are instinctually/reactive. When someone is shooting at you everyone has an innate instinct for self preservation. This also applies to those you are charged with protecting. It is completely different when looking at an innocent animal that did nothing wrong. He probably grew up in the city and never hunted before. That isn’t his fault.

I am aghast that the LEO couldn’t do his duty. And also very upset that he would hand a loaded sidearm to a complete stranger!

He needs at a minimum, a written reprimand, with some unpaid leave, and re-training! Emotions must never cloud judgement!

Genuine compassion would dictate putting the animal out of it’s misery ASAP!

Total direlection of duty, here!

Meh. Two issues. Neither one seems like it’s worth getting in a twist over.

Guy sees animal in pain, can’t shoot it. Not everyone is a hunter, though I guess I would hope the logic of “animal in pain” means “put it down” would get through to him.

As for handing over his service weapon to a stranger. You make a judgement call based on the information you’ve got. What are the odds that someone offering to help you, in a crowd, is going to attempt to pull something? With 20/20 hindsight, his judgement was adequate.

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