Police Kill 12-Year-Old Golden Retriever

ST. PETERSBURG – Linda O'Keefe was awakened Sunday night by a loud pop and a high-pitched scream that she cannot soon forget.

Her first thought was that a woman must have been shot in her driveway. Linda and her husband turned on the flood lights at their Old Northeast home and peered out the front door.

Blood was everywhere – on her son's SUV, all over the brick driveway. Two police officers stood in the driveway watching a wounded Golden Retriever cornered by her son's vehicle. The dog stumbled backward, howling in pain. The couple was ordered inside.

"I never had seen or heard anything like this. It was like a person's scream. I just wanted it to stop," O'Keefe said.

A St. Petersburg Police Officer had just shot a 12-year-old, arthritic Golden Retriever named Boomer that had the bad luck to push through a broken gate at his home one street away and wander into the wrong yard.

It was the middle of the night on Oct. 2. Pet owners Roy and Lauren Glass did not even realize Boomer was not safe in their backyard on 21st Avenue NE.

Boomer had walked south to Bridgitte Williams' front lawn, where she was outside with the family boxer, Rocky, talking to a neighbor at about 11 p.m. Boomer tried to mount her dog and then bared his teeth when she peered at his ID tag, Williams recalled later.

"He jumped on my dog and was humping him," Williams said. "He didn't go away. He bared his teeth. I was a little concerned that there might be a dog fight."

Williams said that she did not recognize the dog, and even woke up a neighbor to find out if the dog belonged at a nearby home. Boomer seemed to have no interest in leaving and then camped out at her front door. He scratched at her door and then laid down.

When no one answered at Pinellas County Animal Control, Williams said she phoned the non-emergency number of the police, who arrived at about midnight.

"The police really tried everything. They were just doing their job," Williams said a week after the fatal shooting. "The officer who shot the dog wept.  This is not really what their jobs are about."

Two officers – Michelle Fotovat and Misty Swanson – first tried to lure the animal away from Williams' property with Beef Jerky. It seemed to do the trick.

As Boomer walked away, Williams noticed that he might not be as menacing as the 70-pound dog first appeared to be. He had the stiff, slow gait of an elderly canine.

"The dog was weak or arthritic. He got up slow. He ambled," said Williams, noting she concluded he was older.

The officers wanted to get Boomer into the back of a squad car, explaining he would need to be "contained" for Pinellas County Animal Control to take him, Williams said.

Despite the officers' efforts, Boomer would not – or could not – jump into the squad car.

"The unknown dog would not enter the rear of the car and started to walk past it," according to the police report. The officers told Williams to go indoors.

Three to five minutes later, Williams said she heard the gunshot and the dog howl.

O'Keefe ran downstairs to see Boomer dying in her driveway, which was across the street diagonally from the Williams house on 20th Avenue NE.

According to the police report, prepared by Officer Fotovat, Officer Swanson had tried to look at the dog's tag, when "it bared its teeth, growled and charged at her liked he was going to attack and bite her."

Fotovat wrote that "the dog was clearly now vicious," when Swanson fired her gun at a distance of about 2 feet. She said the dog started to "squeal and wimper (sic) and had blood coming from it."

Neighbors who heard the dog crying estimate it went on for about 10 minutes. According to the police report, the dog stopped making noise after about 2 minutes and "finally laid down" in the neighbor's driveway.

In that time, several squad cars arrived on the narrow street, in this upscale neighborhood of vintage Florida homes. The neighborhood lit up with outdoor lights. Neighbors rushed out of their homes to see what was going on.

At least seven police vehicles flooded the area. The SPCA arrived to take the body away. A worker identified the dog through his county license tag, when the body was taken back to the Largo shelter. Police advised the animal shelter to contact the owners.

'He Never Hurt Anyone'

Owners Roy and Lauren Glass live on the 400 block of 21st Avenue NE. Their house was just one street northeast of the 400 block of 20th Avenue, where Boomer was killed.

They had no idea what had happened to their dog until the SPCA phoned the next day. The police did not try to contact the Glass family Sunday night. It was not until after noon Monday they heard the astonishing news.

Roy Glass said he kept phoning the police station until a sergeant from Internal Affairs talked to him to say that he could not disclose much detail on what happened. The officer who shot the dog was not on duty and the incident was under review, because it involved a shooting.

Five days after the shooting, Glass went down to the police station for a copy of the report. "This is not my dog," Roy Glass said after reading it. "Boomer was not a guard dog. He was a family pet. He never hurt anyone.

Boomer had slipped out of the backyard before, but usually headed off to play with a pair of Golden Retrievers in the neighborhood.

"He was more likely to kiss and lick someone to death," Glass said. "What are the St. Petersburg Police doing shooting someone's pet?"

St. Petersburg Police can carry a mace-like spray – similar to what a postal worker has – to deter aggressive animals but it's optional. Officers also received a two-hour course last summer on how to handle dogs and how to recognize signs of vicious behavior.

The Glass family finds it hard to believe that Boomer would attack. Boomer had his cranky moments. He was taking medication for arthritis and a thyroid condition. He slept a lot. He typically spent his days swimming in the backyard pool or napping.

Calling Attention to the Shooting

A friend of the Glass family started a Facebook Page to honor Boomer and to call attention to his fatal shooting. "Voice of Boomer" has a photo of the dog after he was shot.

The message next to it says: "Beloved family member, terribly arthritic, goofy, dead." The Facebook page has 409 members after two days.

Ashley Glass, Roy's adult daughter, said that she is concerned that the officer who shot Boomer acted too rashly under pressure.

"What if she reacted the same way to a person?" she asked. She would like to see the officer disciplined and for police to have more training in handling animals.

She wondered why carryng mace or pepper spray is not mandatory when trying to calm or capture a dog.

Roy Glass is an attorney. He and his wife, Lauren, raised two daughters in the Old Northeast. He said he wants to change Florida law, so that when a pet is killed owners can seek damages beyond the animal's value as property. He wants emotional loss to be considered.

He also wants the officer who fired the shot to be disciplined. "I don't want her to lose her job. I just don't want something like this to happen again."

Lauren Glass is taking the loss especially hard. The first thing she did every morning was let Boomer outside. She stll gets up thinking she has to let the dog out but he is not there. She can't talk about Boomer without breaking down in tears.

Members of the Glass family are eager to tell a different story about Boomer than what the police say. Boomer was a cherished and loved family member, they said. He wouldn't hurt anyone.

"He had the heart of a puppy even at an old age. He had so much admiration for anyone who gave him attention," Ashley said. "He was a teddy bear."

The Glass family shared photos of their dog. Boomer is seen sleeping with the family cat, his best friend. In another picture, Boomer looks like he is grinning as he sits in front of a glittering Christmas tree.

The Glass family also shared photos of him in death. They show Boomer's snow white head resting on a bloodied towel, and a gloved hand smoothing fur aside to expose the gaping wound on the side of his neck. Boomer's face is contorted in pain.

"Boomer sought love all the time and gave it right back," Ashley said. "He was an innocent, loving dog near and dear to our hearts."