STURGEON, Mo. – A mid-Missouri officer faces a federal lawsuit after bodycam footage showed the officer fatally shooting a blind and deaf dog earlier this month.
The dog’s owner, Nicholas Hunter, filed the lawsuit Tuesday against police officer Myron Woodson and the City of Sturgeon, Missouri, according to court documents obtained by FOX 2.
The lawsuit identifies Woodson as a Sturgeon police officer and claims he violated Hunter’s Fourth Amendment rights through his use of force. It also accuses the City of Sturgeon of not adequately training, supervising, or disciplining its officers.
According to the lawsuit, one of Hunter’s neighbors called the City of Sturgeon on May 19 after she found Teddy, a 13-pound Shih Tzu dog, in her yard. The neighbor sought assistance in finding Teddy’s owner and keeping him safe until he was reunited.
Bodycam footage, shared by mid-Missouri TV stations last week from the City of Sturgeon, shows Teddy wandering around a yard and an officer making some attempts to catch him with a snare pole. After several unsuccessful attempts to catch the dog, the bodycam footage shows an officer firing two shots at Teddy, who was later pronounced dead.
One day after the shooting, the City of Sturgeon claimed in a Facebook post that the officer, now identified as Woodson, feared the dog may have rabies. “Unfortunately, the animal’s lack of a collar or tags influenced the SPD Officer’s decision to put the animal down due to his belief that the animal was injured, sick and abandoned,” the Facebook post reads, in part.
The lawsuit describes what unfolded as a “warrantless seizure of Teddy” and “unnecessary, callous, and egregious.” It contends that Teddy did not show aggression toward Woodson, and never barked or growled at him.
On May 23, the City of Sturgeon released another statement on Facebook over the shooting death, reading in part: “The City believes that the officer acted within his authority based on the information available to him at the time to protect against possible injury to citizens from what appeared to be an injured, sick, and abandoned dog.”
One day later, the City of Sturgeon announced its mayor, Kevin Abrahamson, had resigned from his role. Mid-Missouri TV station KMIZ reports that Woodson is currently on leave from Sturgeon’s police department.
The lawsuit also alleges that Woodson’s “improper use of the catch-pole, incompetence using the device [and] clear lack of understanding of how the device operated” led up to Teddy’s death. It also cited several citizen complaints over Woodson and his job performance in six months with the police department.
Attorneys Daniel J. Kolde of St. Louis County and Eric C. Crinnian of Kansas City filed the lawsuit in United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri on behalf of Nicholas Hunter. The lawsuit seeks a reward for “all compensatory damages, attorneys’ fees [and] expenses.”
NOTE: Viewer discretion is advised in the bodycam video linked in the story.
