Police Killed Dog for No Reason, Lied About Fake “Perpetrator”: Lawsuit

Kevin Lessmiller | Courthouse News Service.

A Chicago family claims in court that a police officer fatally shot their dog for no reason and then blamed it on a fictitious perpetrator.

Terry and Atara Taylor say Chicago police officer Mark Rodriguez unlawfully entered their backyard at 7a.m. on Aug. 18, 2014, and shot their dog six times, killing it.

According to a lawsuit they filed Wednesday in Northern Illinois Federal Court, the Taylors didn’t know what happened when they were awakened by the gunshots, but they saw Rodriguez outside walking toward his squad car.





“Terry Taylor opened the front door and asked defendant Rodriguez if he was okay and what had happened…Defendant Rodriguez ignored him and kept walking towards the front yard,” the complaint states. “At that moment Terry Taylor observed his family dog—a nine-year old Italian Mastiff Cane Corso—lying on the ground and bleeding out.”

Taylor asked Rodriguez why he shot the dog, and Rodriguez allegedly replied, “I didn’t shoot your damn dog, the perpetrator shot your dog.”


“There was never any so called perpetrator apprehended in the residence of Terry Taylor at any time before, during, or after the shooting of the plaintiffs’ family dog,” the lawsuit states. “Prior to Terry Taylor’s discovery of defendant Rodriguez on his private residence, numerous neighbors had witnessed the shooting of the plaintiffs’ dog.”

At least two neighbors said Rodriguez shot the dog three times, and then fired three more shots while the dog was “whining in pain and suffering and gasping for breath,” according to the 10-page complaint.





The Taylors say they have been “traumatized and devastated by the loss of their beloved family dog and the entire family is suffering from the emotional and mental anguish of his death.”

They seek punitive damages, and are represented by Nnanenyem Uche in Chicago.

The Chicago Police Department said it cannot comment on pending litigation.

Published by Courthouse News Service.

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