The Hawthorne Police Department is under fire after a video went viral that shows a police officer pulling out a gun and shooting a dog right in front of the owner. The shocking video was posted on YouTube and shows several cop cars responding to a SWAT operation. Several bystanders stand around taking pictures and filming the event. A man, Leon Rosby, is seen with his dog standing on the corner capturing the police activity on his cell phone. According to PIX11, Rosby is being watched by the police who and appears to have a brief verbal exchange with two police officers.
Rosby's attorney, Michael Gulden, told the TV station that his client was arrested because he standing too close to the police barricade. After taking video on his cell phone and apparently talking to the police about something, the man puts his Rottweiler in the backseat of the car. At this point the police have begun to walk towards Rosby and he is seen meeting the police and turning around to be handcuffed. As police lead him toward a car, the dog begins barking and hops out of the car towards the cops. The dog, whose name is Max, briefly backs away a little bit, a cop makes a gesture at the dog either shooing it away or reaching for the leash and the dog jumps up in an attempt to bite the officer.
The cop pulls out his gun and fires four rounds into the animal, killing the dog. According to the Daily Mail, Hawthorne Police Lt. Scott Swain said that the officers arrested Rosby because they had asked him to turn his music down, which could be heard in the video, because it was interfering with what the cops were trying to do. An eyewitness told the Daily Breeze that he heard Rosby tell the cops "It's my (expletive) radio."
"It's distracting the officers. It's interfering with what they are able to hear," Lt. Swain told the Daily Breeze. "It's not just a party call. It's an armed robbery call. The officers need to hear what's going on with the people being called out of the residence. That music in his car was bleeding over and it's distracting them."
Rosby, who was released from jail, said he never cursed at the cops because "as a Christian he doesn't swear."
"I do apologize if I didn't immediately comply," Rosby told the paper. "The music may have been a little loud but I was complying."
"He literally killed my little puppy I had since he was six weeks old," he added. "I was crying and hollering 'My dog! Max Max!' There's was no way Max should have died like that." He also said that police refuse to release the dog's body to him.
This is not the first time Rosby has had issues with the police department. According to the Daily Breeze, his record includes convictions for resisting arrest, driving under the influence and battery. He has also filed six complaints against Hawthorne Police Department alleging "mistreatments and racial profiling."
The Hawthorne Police Department did tweet about the police activity where the incident occurred but hasn't posted anything about the killing of Max.
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING VIDEO IS EXTREMELY GRAPHIC
