Officers made the decision that the deer was a public safety issue:
[youtube width=”560″ height=”340″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEEYnriDfNQ[/youtube]
Police reportedly received dozens of complaints from the public after the shooting. Internal affairs investigators will look at whether police followed department regulations and policies regarding taking an animal into protective custody and dealing with an animal that could be injured, police said.
During the incident, police contacted the state Department of Fish & Game, but the warden overseeing the area was more than 30 minutes away, said Fish & Game spokesman Kyle Orr, and the officers thought they had to act sooner than that.
Full Story – HERE
Good call guys.. that deer was a menace! :roll:
Wow… once again thank god for cameras.
Comments
13 responses to “Oakland California Police Shoot Deer”
I dunno, the fact that this is such a big deal to anyone just goes to show you what a diverse place America is. I live in WV, and here we have 1 deer for every 2 people. I personally shoot and eat 3 or so a year. Here, I don’t think anyone would blink an eye at that, other than the fact that these cops evidently had no idea how to shoot a deer. Or possibly no idea how to shoot, I’m not sure what it was, but they had no business attempting that. In their shoes, I would feel bad about firing my gun all around the neighborhood either missing or wounding the poor thing, as I don’t condone cruelty, and I bet nobody got that deer butchered so I’d feel bad about the waste…but otherwise, I’m not feeling the outrage. Next time, I would shoot better.
As for public menace, depending on how busy the roads were around there and how rare it was to see deer around them, it’s fair to say it might just be that. After all, if this deer got away from them, ran in front of somebody’s car and went through the windshield, a whole different set of people would be criticizing the action here.
Dom, I thought that the officers needed some lessons on how to shoot a deer as well.
I was more concerned about what was on the other side of that fence. It certainly didn’t appear they checked. Read story once where for some reason the cops were called about a snake in a birdhouse or something. They try to shoot it, miss and hit a 5-yr old. Just because they’re cops doesn’t mean their bullets stop before they do unintended damage.
Six shots to kill a yearling from 15 feet away? This is not humane and is dispicable. This speaks volumes of the knowledge and training of police officers involved. I question the decision to kill, but once that decision was made, the shooter showed absolute ineptitude in his ability to dispatch of his intended victim. Yea, public safety issue indeed.
Sorry, but IMHO a REAL cop would have walked away to concentrate on more pressing issues in Oakland ,CA, regardless of what his CO told him to do (or tell the CO to shoot it him/hersef).
Nice shooting, professionals!
Wild deer kills three, cop has to put down for public safety, yea right. This was in the Oakland hills, if left alone the dear would have wandered off then been hit by a car at some point. Here in CA people have forgotten where meat comes from ” it comes from Safeway right”. Instead of being so mad about the dead dear, People should be mad about what a bad shot this Police Officer is. It looks like the first round doesn’t even hit the dear (retraining)
What is it with cops and shooting things at the moment?
I believe I smell a meme coming up.
I’ve had to despatch a young disabled hind while working at a deer farm. I used a .22 rifle and shot if in the back of the head at a similar distance – killing it instantly. I was initially concerned about the light round, but it served its purpose well because I considered it’s effect on my target and placed my shot accordingly.
I’m concerned with this on several levels – did these cops consider the environment beyond the target? It doesn’t appear so. Secondly, where was the threat that required the shooting? The animal appeared to be contained, and the animal control guy was on the way so what was the rush? And finally, it was just piss poor shooting.
Still … it’s not just a case of gung ho American cops. Here in NZ we recently had an incident where during a police raid a large rotweiller that belonged to the offender ran from the raided property. Police fearing that it was dangerous shot at it from distances ranging from 5 to 10 metres away using glocks and m16 rifles. From memory around 5 officers fired between them about 12 -15 rounds and didn’t hit the animal. This was in a residential neighbourhood. The dog escaped to a neighbours house none the worse for wear and it turned out to be far from dangerous.
Surely marksmanship should be proven before arms are issued to personel. I gotta say, it’s a worry…
But they did prove their marksmanship, it was the 10 shots they fired at a paper plate from 7 feet 15 years ago.
Sad. I’ve called the police before to put down an injured deer near my home. It was inside the city limits so I couldn’t legally discharge the weapon to put the animal out of its misery on my own. Officer came out, one shot to the head, radioed dispatch to call road department to clean up the kill. Apparently other agencies have a more difficult time with putting an animal down. I don’t have a problem with killing the deer, but these idiots acted like they weren’t sure what to do. :(
Unreal. Fish and Game might have been 30 minutes away, but how about either animal control or an officer that could shoot? And why? What was that deer going to do? Eat a flower?
On a side note, what a waste of venison. My freezer is running low and archery season is still months away…
Amazing, and amusing. My intended comment has already been voiced many times, what piss-poor shooting. One round to the head would have taken care of the problem, after establishing a clear backdrop. And this is “public safety”?
[…] I hope at least a few of the 80 that were laid off, were the bozos involved in the shooting of the deer back in May. […]