Dog Shooting on tape 2003
At 4:52 in the afternoon of January First Tennessee Highway Patrol in Nashville received a call from a woman in Wilson County who was traveling east on Interstate 40, and who reported she had been passed by a green station wagon traveling at a high rate of speed, and that a large amount of money had been thrown out of the window. A "BOLO" (Be On the Lookout) call was put out to all cars to this effect.*At 5:00, Operator Shannon Pickard sent a teletype from Nashville Dispatch to all Middle Tennessee agencies inquiring as to whether there had been any robberies where a large sum of money might have been taken, involving a dark green station wagon bearing out-of-state tags.At 5:07, Trooper David Bush called in to say he had met a car matching the vehicle description, and was trying to catch up with it. Operator McHood broadcast to all vehicles that Trooper Bush is trying to catch a dark green station wagon, possibly involved in a recent robbery involving large amounts of cash, and asked if there was a unit in the area to assist him. Trooper Jeff Phann responded.After Pulling over an Innocent Family after the father had left his wallet on the roof of the car at a rest stop the family dog is shot dead when one officer overreacts to the dog's obvious non-threatening gestures.####################################January 8, 2003Tennessee Highway Patrol Col. Mark Fagan will decide what punishments, if any, will be meted out to employees involved in the Jan. 1 shooting of a dog on Interstate 40 in Cookeville, officials said. Fagan will also determine whether any policy changes need to implemented in the wake of the shooting, which was triggered by a phone call from a woman who reported seeing "a large amount of money" being thrown out of a station wagon in Wilson County, according to Tennessee Department of Safety spokeswoman Beth Womack. "The colonel's office is now looking at what, if any, policies or procedures may have been violated and what, if any, disciplinary action is appropriate," Womack said Thursday. Although investigators have pored over all the audio and videotaped information made during the course of the traffic stop and shooting, Womack indicated that at least some conversations weren't recorded. "It was found that some of the communication between dispatchers was made on a Nextel-type two-way instead of a recorded telephone or radio line, therefore cannot be absolutely confirmed," Womack said. Troopers thought the station wagon might have been involved in an armed robbery when they pulled it about 5:15 p.m., authorities said. It turned out that the driver of the station wagon, James Smoak, had left his wallet on the car when he stopped to get gas while he and his family were driving from Nashville to their home near Asheville. Dispatchers informed troopers and Cookeville police that the car might have been involved in a "recent robbery," and the officers conducted a felony stop with guns drawn. Smoak, his wife, Pamela Smoak, and their 17-year-old son, Brandon Hayden, were ordered from the car and handcuffed. They repeatedly told the officers that two dogs, including a mixed pit bull named Patton, were in the car and asked the officers to close the door, according to a videotape of the incident shot from a THP cruiser. Moments later, Patton bounded out of the vehicle and trotted toward Cookeville officer Eric Hall, its tail wagging. Hall backed up quickly as the dog kept coming toward him, then shot and killed the animal with his shotgun. In a written incident report filed after the shooting, Hall said he asked a dispatcher "what felony had been committed" as he drove to assist troopers but the dispatcher "was not able to give me the information before I arrived on the scene." Hall said it appeared that the dog "singled me out from the other officers and charged toward me, growling (sic) in an aggressive manner. I yelled at the dog to "Get Back" but it attempted to circle me to attack, so I felt I had no other option but to protect myself. I fired once at the dog instantly putting it down." "When asked during our investigation why the passenger door was not closed, Lieutenant (Jerry) Andrews indicated that if he or another officer had moved to that side of the car, he would have been in the line of any potential crossfire," Womack said in a press release. "Remember - at this time, the troopers on the scene were still under the impression that a felony may have been committed, and were acting accordingly." Cookeville police officials declined to return phone calls seeking comment, although Tennessee Department of Safety spokeswoman Beth Womack said Hall had been assigned to administrative duties. After the shooting, James Smoak tried to stand up but was wrestled to the ground by troopers. After he was placed in the back of a patrol car, he repeatedly asked the officers to get a veterinarian but his requests were ignored. "You all have gone crazy," he said. Later, after the officers determined that the family had committed no crime, the officers gave Smoak a plastic bag to collect the corpse of his dog after he told them to leave his former pet alone. "You've done enough," he said. After the officers removed the handcuffs from Pamela Smoak, she sunk to the ground by the family's car and cried. "I'm never stepping foot in this state again," she said. Womack said THP's investigation concluded the troopers were justified in conducting a felony stop based on the information they were given by dispatchers. "It's an unusual situation seeing a car go by with money flying out of it," she said. Somehow, as the dispatchers tried to find out information about the car and sent out a teletype request for data on recent robberies in the area, the call went from "being an inquiry as to whether a robbery had occurred to whether the dark green station wagon had been involved (in a robbery)." When asked if the state had offered to compensate the family for the loss of their pet, Womack said: "Not at this time, no." In a written complaint against the officers, Pamela Smoak lashed out at the handling of the initial phone call. "No one ever called in a robbery or any felony!" Smoak wrote. "A felony stop should not have been made. A murder has been committed by the Tennessee Highway Patrol. ... There was a very bad error on someone's part and we paid for it." J.J. Stambaugh may be reached at 865-342-6307Tennessee Department of SafetyTHP STATEMENT ON SMOAK FAMILY INCIDENTNashville (January 8, 2003) -- We at the Tennessee Department of Safety and The Tennessee Highway Patrol would like to convey our deepest sympathy, to the Smoak family, for the events of January 1st in Cookeville, Tennessee. Losing a beloved family pet is difficult at any time, but especially under such circumstances as the ones last week. The Tennessee Department of Safety and the Cookeville Police Department have spent the past several days closely scrutinizing what happened that night, talking to the parties who were involved, going over statements, radio transmissions, and videotape, in an intense investigation of the New Year's Day event. Any questions relating specifically to the shooting of the dog, Patton, must be addressed to the Cookeville Police Department. But while it was not one of our Troopers who fired the fatal shot, the Cookeville officers were assisting us in this traffic stop. Those involved in our investigation included Department of Safety Commissioner Jerry W. Scott, Internal Affairs Director Gerald Allen, Tennessee Highway Patrol Commander Colonel Mark Fagan, Captain Randy Hoover of the Cookeville District of the Tennessee Highway Patrol, Captain Danny Wilson of the Nashville THP District, as well as members of our Criminal Investigation Division, training staff, administrative staff, and legal division. Our investigation has found that our troopers on the scene that night - Trooper David Bush, Trooper Jeff Phann, and Lieutenant Jerry Andrews - did have probable cause to conduct what in police terms is called a "felony stop" of a motorist. However, some issues were found in the chain of events that led to it being given that status.