Feb 15, 2017;
Alabama – There was no mention of the shooting of the dog.
But that didn’t stop the jury on Wednesday from taking just 20 minutes to return a verdict of not guilty for disorderly conduct.
One juror even came over to shake the hand of Richard Junkins, the man who for months has complained of the way he was treated by the Madison County Sheriff’s Department on the day he lost everything.
On March 6, 2015, a week after a record snowfall, Junkins watched his trailer burn down with all his possessions inside. His wife, Angie, escaped without shoes.
His black lab, named Mr. Bear, also made it out.
“He was an inside dog. He never slept outside in his life,” said Junkins. “He was like a son to me. To some people, that may sound funny.”
Deputies arrived later that evening, about 10 hours after the fire. A driver had called police to say a man was acting strangely, sitting in the roadway.
Deputy Daniel De Jong walked down the dark driveway toward the smoldering trailer, flashlight in hand. Junkins could be heard bellowing, making loud anguished sounds. There was barking in the distance. A dog ran out of the darkness and growled.
Deputy De Jong yelled, “Hey, hey!” He shot and killed the dog.
Junkins lost his mind. Standing in the bitter cold, half-dressed, with red dots of Taser sights on him, he began cursing the man who just killed his dog, daring deputies to fire again.
“Hey, stay where you’re at!” commanded De Jong.
“Son of a bitch…you shot my dog!”
De Jong repeated: “Get on the ground!”
Junkins twice tells him: “Shoot me!”
There is much yelling, some indecipherable, some profane.
“Do you understand get on the ground?!?”
“My house burned down today and now you shot my dog!”
Disorderly conduct
After the yelling, Junkins was taken into custody without force. He was arrested for disorderly conduct for obstructing traffic.
On the footage from the body camera, De Jong can be heard explaining: “We’re trying to figure out what’s going on, I get a big-ass dog running at me, I ain’t going to get bit.”
But Junkins, now in custody, tells him: “You killed my baby.”
None of this would come out during the perplexing trial on Wednesday.
The jury would not see the video.
Judge Ruth Ann Hall ruled that lawyers could not discuss the shooting of Mr. Bear.
The judge also warned: “There will not be any mention of any other cases involving this officer.”
That officer would be Deputy De Jong, who was in the news last year for tasing a man in the back during his housewarming party.
For full story visit: http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2016/03/deputy_shoots_dog_after_man_lo.html#incart_river_home