El Paso Country Sheriff’s Deputy Shoots Non-Aggressive Dog

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El Paso County sheriff’s deputies shot a dog Tuesday in Horizon City.

Deputies were called around 11 a.m. to the 400 block of Duskwood Street, a neighborhood near Eastlake High School, after animal control officers requested their help.

Residents who witnessed the incident said there were children outside when authorities arrived.

El Paso County Animal Control officers said they were unable to restrain the mastiff.

A deputy shot and killed the dog, an El Paso County Sheriff’s spokeswoman said.

A neighbor said he doesn’t understand why the dog was shot because it was not being aggressive.

He said Zeus the dog was confused with another dog that was reported as being vicious in the neighborhood.

“In the event of the shooting, my brain only caught four shots,” said Guillermo Saldana, a neighbor who witnessed the incident and recorded the video above. “But it happened so fast while I was watching it that I can only attest to four shots. ”

The owners of the dog, Billy Lopez and Eliza Silva, said they weren’t home at the time their Mastiff Zeus was shot.

“He’s not this monster he’s being portrayed to be,” Silva said. “My children are devastated. The neighbors’ children are devastated. Nobody can understand why. ”

“They literally chased him down the wall and at some point they felt threatened, which is not what we saw,” Saldana said. “The dog laid there for a good while they were conversing in their vehicles.”

Other neighbors on Duskwood said they never saw Zeus being aggressive. They said he was just trying to get into his backyard.

People living in the area who witnessed the incident said they have more questions than answers about what happened.

“Shooting that many times in a residential area?” Saldana said. “I have no idea why they had to do that. How it is he missed that many times before he was able to hit the dog is an even larger concern.”

The incident is under investigation by the Sheriff’s Office shooting review team, said sheriff’s officials.

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