LORAIN, Ohio — A Lorain family is heartbroken and outraged after their dog was shot and killed by a Lorain Police officer Sunday afternoon.
Tammie and Mellenie Kerns told News 5 the family’s four labrador retrievers ran out the front door of their Oberlin Avenue house when the mother and daughter were trying to leave for an errand shortly before 1 p.m. Sunday. As they attempted to round the dogs up and bring them back inside, they said an officer pulled over.
“It wasn’t a call. No one waved him down. I thought, ‘Hey, this man’s going to help us stop traffic if any of our dogs do happen to run in the street,’” Mellenie Kerns recalled.
She said her 3-year-old yellow lab, Dixie, who had been on edge from the fireworks the previous evening, was startled and ran into the street when the officer exited his cruiser.
“I thought I was going to get shot when he yelled, ‘Stop.’ And when he fired that first shot at Dixie, I dropped to hold my other dog, Beethoven. I thought I was going to lose all of it because of a trigger-happy cop,” Kerns said.
She told News 5 the first gunshot hit the dog in her lower back and appeared to paralyze her hind legs before the officer fired two more shots.
“He unloaded three more bullets into her on the driveway,” she said. “There were children out. Any of these bullets could have gone through my dog and ricocheted. They could have missed my dog and ricocheted and hit a child.”
In the incident report, the officer said it appeared someone had been bitten by a dog when he arrived at the scene and that she charged at him. Dixie’s owners challenge that narrative, saying none of their dogs have ever shown aggression.
“When she’s around people, they all want to play with her or let her lick them and be loveable, as labs are want to do,” Kerns said of Dixie.
They believe the encounter could have been de-escalated differently.
“He had mace on him; he had a taser. Why not use the Taser on her instead of shooting her?” Tammie Kerns said.
Word of the shooting spread throughout town, including to total strangers like Lisa Hughes, who saw videos and photos on social media.
“The whole scene was just horrific,” she said. “I have four dogs in there. I’m a dog lover, and it bothered me all day yesterday.”
Hughes created an online petition calling for the removal of the officer involved. By Monday evening, it had more than 900 signatures.
“That bothers me that we have a police officer in our city, policing to that degree that he feels like he’s the judge, jury and executioner,” Hughes said.
In a release from the Lorain Police Department, the police chief said the department’s Office of Professional Standards was investigating the use of force. He also said he was working with several outside expert consultants to review the case.
Meanwhile, Dixie’s family is calling for accountability.
“This should have been a normal summer day. It should have been a happy day, not the tragedy it turned out to be,” Mellenie Kerns said.
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