Catoosa Pet Owner: Police Officer Shot And Killed Her Dog

By Chris Wright, The News On 6

CATOOSA, OK -- A grieving pet owner says a Catoosa Police officer cruelly killed her dog. The two-year-old boxer was shot after police say she lunged at the officer.

The dog survived a gunshot to the head and was later euthanized. Her owner says she suffered unnecessarily, while Catoosa police are defending their officer's decision.

Carrie Williams was awoken Saturday by a knock on her door from a Catoosa police officer. He informed her that her boxer Kallie was about to be euthanized.

"He then told me that he shot her between the eyes. She's not dead, but we're going to put her down. Then he let me know he could cite me for it, but he wasn't going to," Carrie Williams said.

The officer, Keith Prince, was responding to a call from cable repairmen who reported a vicious dog loose in the neighborhood. He says when he got out of his squad car the boxer was snarling and lunged at him. Prince decided to open fire.

"Officer Prince, in defense of his own safety, drew his service weapon and fired one round, striking the animal in the head," Sergeant Doug Spencer, Catoosa Police, said.

But Kallie didn't go down. She retreated out of sight, and Prince waited for animal control to arrive and take her away and put her down. The department says the incident was unfortunate, but the officer had to defend himself.

"There's no officer here that seeks out a reason to shoot a dog or shoot someone else's pet," Spencer said.

"I'm a single mom with a four-year-old little boy, and she was our best friend," Williams said.

Williams said Kallie often played with her son and other neighborhood children and had never been aggressive. She admitted that the dog had escaped the yard many times before, but the police had never been called.

But even if the boxer was poised to attack the officer, she said Kallie didn't deserve to die like this.

"I felt like that she was abused," she said. "I felt like they let her suffer after he shot her."

Williams says Officer Prince mistook her boxer for a more aggressive breed. She says he told her he had shot a pit bull. Prince will not face any disciplinary action.