NEW ORLEANS — New Orleans police say the officer who shot and killed a 17-week-old puppy over the weekend has been reassigned pending an investigation.
Those who are close with the family and the dog say they are outraged over what happened.
"When she told me police had walked onto their property and shot their dog I couldn't believe it," Marcus Gandy said.
Gandy fostered Apollo. Around Mardi Gras, he introduced the pup to longtime friends, Julie and Derek Brown, who immediately made the dog part of their family.
"Them and their two daughters fell in love with Apollo and it was warming to see a family care about a dog so much," he said.
Saturday's tragic events though have left him asking questions.
"I want to know what has to happen to where police officers have the training, they have the experience and the comfort level to go onto sites like this and respond to simple noise complaints and not kill puppies or people or anything," he said.
New Orleans police say around 9:30 p.m., two officers went to the 1400 block of Felicity Street to investigate a disturbance. When they opened the gate, a dog charged and one officer fired his gun. The dog's owner says she heard three shots and saw the puppy had been hit and killed.
"I think asking if someone is okay after this, I mean, no, no they're not," Gandy said.
Eyewitness News spoke with Apollo's owner, who did not want to go on camera. However, she says she's extremely upset and devastated over the shooting of her puppy, and wants to know how something like this happened.
"It's a very tough situation, first things first we have to find all the facts," Susan Hutson said.
Hutson, the city's Independent Police Monitor, keeps an eye on NOPD investigations and is specifically following this case.
"We are notified within one hour of the event occurring any time an officer fires their weapon," she said. "Whether they hit someone or not, whether it's at a human or at an animal and whether it's on purpose or accidental."
She says no matter the victim, they look and study everything to make sure rules and policies were properly followed. And if not, they'll alert NOPD leaders.
"We want to know how is the officer is trained?" she said. "In these particular circumstances what are they trained to do and did the officer follow, did both officers follow their training?"
And as these questions are found, those close to the situation are demanding answers so something like this doesn't happen again.
The Humane Society of Louisiana released a statement saying:
"Obviously our hearts break for the Brown family. This is a tragedy, which like most police shootings of family pets, could have easily been avoided and prevented with just some common sense and some basic training. Police have to realize that 50% of all households have at least one or more pets and many of those pets are dogs. So if they enter the property they have to expect a dog to be present and will likely bark or growl to protect its owners or property. But, that doesn’t mean that the dog is vicious or poses a threat. There are multiple ways to interact with an unknown dog that doesn’t involve the use of a firearm. One can use a loud voice command, a baton to bat the dog away, pepper spray. Or, an officer can simply exit the scene and return to the police unit and allow the owner to confine the dog or wait for assistance from the local animal control department. Unless the officer fears for his life or the life of others nearby is lethal force an option. Often, as in this case, it is not warranted. The shooting of a puppy reveals the serious flaws and defects in the level and type of training our officers are receiving."