Woman Sues After Police Shoot Her Dog

A Muskogee woman is grieving and she says police are responsible.  Yvonne Todd says officers shot and killed her dog and roughed her up, now she's suing them and the city.  News On 6 anchor Latoya Silmon reports Yvonne Todd says her St. Bernard Shelby was more like daughter than a pet.  She says the dog would never hurt anyone, that's why she still can't believe police would shoot the dog in the head, so she's filed this lawsuit against them.

Memories are all Todd has left of the best friend and companion she's ever known

"That was my kid. I couldn't believe she was gone.  The next moment she was gone," said Todd.

She says those who are called to serve and protect are responsible. 

It happened at Todd's front door.  She says officers came there last April after someone called 911 about gunshots being fired.  Todd says she did have an argument with her boyfriend, but she says the only shots that were fired came from the police.

"I reached for my baby and I said don't shoot my dog," said Todd.

She says that's exactly what one officer did after her dog barked in her doorway.  Then she says police roughed her up.

"I felt like I was being tagged teamed or something," said Todd.

All she could think of was Shelby.

"I watched her lay there and bleed to death by herself.  I just wanted to hold her.  I just wanted to hold her," said Todd.

Todd says police never arrested her and didn't bother to file a report until she pressed them, now she's filed a lawsuit against them and the City of Muskogee.

"In her heart if she could at least make a difference in how these situations occur in the future she'd feel she had accomplished something," said Todd's attorney, Corrine O'Day.

And she hopes witnesses like Elizabeth Garcia will help her case.  She says this is a case of police brutality.

"I know they're denying that they used excessive force, but I saw it," said Garcia.
 
Muskogee Police will not comment on the case and neither will the city.  In fact, Muskogee's attorney says he hasn't seen the lawsuit.  The attorney said he wouldn't comment on pending litigation anyway.