Leon Rosby has no luck with police. Before the incident that happened in this video, he had a pending lawsuit against Hawthorne Police Department, when he claims they beat him without cause. That’s why they targeted him, he says, though it seems he could be targeted because he was recording police while they were undergoing a stand off with a SWAT operation, playing loud music in his car, and hefting around a large dog. He was video taping the police, “Filming them so that no one’s civil rights were being violated” as he explained to officers; he himself was simultaneously video-taped, and the video shows his arrest for interfering with police activity, upon which his dog leapt from the car, and appeared to attempt to bite the police officer, who subsequently shot the dog 4 times, killing it.
“I never meant my dog to be killed and shot like that,” said Rosby Tuesday, as reported by NBC News. “He wasn’t just shot. He was executed.” What difference that is supposed to make is unclear, but it must have been heartbreaking to see his dear pet flail and kick in its last moments of life (warning, the video below is graphic).
Rosby can be heard crying out as his legs buckled while watching his dog die in the street. Onlookers, meanwhile, scream and cry in alarm.
A statement from the Hawthorne Police Department talks of the interference Rosby caused: “This interference included loud, distracting music (from the individual’s vehicle), and his intentional walking within close proximity to armed officers, while holding an 80-pound Rottweiler on a long leash-line,” the statement said. It later explains how the dog was shot, “Fearing that the attacking Rottweiler would imminently bite the officer(s), one officer fired his duty weapon several times, striking and killing the dog.”
No apology has been issued by police, and Rosby is planning on filing a lawsuit regarding the death of his dog.