On the evening of Friday, July 5, 2013 Mark Condon a Senior Police Officer with the Houston Police Department – Homicide Division shot and killed a beloved family dog that belonged to his neighbor, while he was off duty.
Gunner was a family pet whose only mistake was following one of his little boys and a neighborhood friend into an open field adjacent to their home, to retrieve a ball that had gone over the fence. Officer Condon, his wife, and dogs were taking a walk. Gunner spotted them and approached, sniffed Officer Condon's dogs. This "startled" his wife, who then fell down, but was not injured. After the boys retreived their ball, they called for Gunner who started to head back with the boys. Officer Condon then drew his weapon and shot Gunner in the neck. The boys, aged 12 and younger, were standing only about 15 feet away.
Gunner died in their arms on the way to the vet's office. Gunner was a sweet, goofy and friendly boxer who loved everybody, especially the boys. No one was injured except for Gunner, who paid the ultimate price. A SENIOR Police officer should know better than to discharge a firearm so close to CHILDREN. What would have happened to them, if they had made one wrong move to the left or the right?
DEMAND JUSTICE FOR GUNNER!
- - Demand HPD hold their officers responsible for their actions.
- - Demand HPD provide better training to their officers so that they are able to distinguish between a goofy, happy family pet that poses no threat and an actual aggressive animal.
- - Demand HPD train their officers more humane means of dealing with dogs other than just to shoot them.
It is NOT the job of any police officer to use their authority to shoot neighborhood, family pets. Gunner is not the first, but hopefully he can be the last. This kind of behavior from police has to stop.
