title:  Laughing Cops Took Turns Shooting Puppy (VIDEO)
text: On December 10, Chester Pennsylvania police officers shot and killed one-year-old Bear, a mixed breed family dog, who had been rescued by his owners just months before.According to Christie Fry, the owner of the dog, she first encountered Bear when he was just four months old. Three months later, she brought the injured pup home to join her family. Bear came into my life in May as a rescue. He was seven months old and had a broken leg. He was brought into my family and his leg healed better than expected without requiring surgery. He could run and jump like a normal dog. I loved this dog. I fell in love when I first met him as a four month old pup. But two weeks before Christmas, Chester police pumped eight bullets into Bear, as the horrified mother watched from her window.Fry says that she heard Bear barking in the backyard at about 10:00 am that morning. There was construction going on at the house next door. She explains that Bear was securely hooked up on a tie out in the yard, so she didn t see his barking as a cause for concern.About ten minutes later she heard the first gun shots.I hear two gunshots. As I m getting up I hear the third. As soon as I m standing, I can see out my side window. Police. Fourth shot. I look at what they re doing and see my dog on the ground. My dog starts screaming. I scream. More shots. Five, six, seven, eight. There s two cops taking turns shooting him with smiles on their faces.Fry says she ran out the door, yelling  What the hell? One of the officers asked  Is this your dog? She says that after she told them  yes  and tried to asked what happened.The response she was given is even more disturbing.The officer said (and I quote)  Well you don t have a dog anymore. He s done now!  and laughed in my face.She goes on to say,My one-year-old puppy that I did everything in my power to save was laying there dead. They shot my dog like he was a human coming at them with a gun.Bear was killed less than two feet from his own dog house, located near the fence that separates Christie Fry s property from the house next door.image credit: puppycidedb.comA photo of his body shows that the fence between the Fry s yard and the neighbor s was open. Bear s body is lying just on the other side of the fence.In a subsequent report filed by the police, officers claimed that they had received  complaints  about Bear.Christie Fry says she was never informed of any complaints from anyone.She was at home at the time that police, accompanied by an animal control officer, came to her home. No one ever knocked on her door or made an effort to contact her.Instead it appears that the cops and the animal control officer went directly to the Fry s backyard, where Bear was barking and restrained.According to animal control, Bear conveniently  broke loose from his tie-out  at that time. He claims that Bear knocked him over. He denies that the dog ever bit him or even tried to bite him.Even if the puppy did knock him down, which is doubtful, why was it necessary for cops to shoot him eight times?Christie Fry has started a Go Fund Me page to raise the money to hire a lawyer. As she points out here, the area around Bear s dog house is bare dirt, as is the neighboring yard. Yet she says that there was not a speck of dust or dirt on the animal control officer s suit, even though he claimed that he was knocked into the dirt by an overly zealous puppy.It seems more likely that the cops went to the Fry s home that day with every intention of killing the dog. They likely thought there was no-one at home to witness the shooting. That would explain why neither animal control nor the police made any attempt to talk to his owner, but headed straight for the backyard instead.Fry acknowledges on her Go Fund Me page that  Bear was a barker.  Was he just getting on the nerves of the construction crew next door?If there were complaints about Bear, police have yet to provide his owner with any details of those complaints.This is not the first time that Chester police have come under fire for killing a dog.In 2013, shocked bystanders captured video of officers opening fire on a pickup truck that was occupied by dogs. The truck was parked directly in front of the high school. Police opened fire, shooting toward both the truck and the school during the student lunch period.Here s more on that story from NBC News: According to Chester mayor John Linder, police followed  all protocol  when they opened fire on the pickup truck, ultimately killing three dogs.Since the dogs involved in that incident were pit bulls, the mayor justified the actions of police by citing a supposed  violent history of the animals in question.  (Here s what happened when our guest writer let a pit bull near his baby.)In a statement published by the Daily Times, Mayor Linder said: (P)olice personnel immediately arrived on scene and assessed the severity of the situation. They took immediate action to ensure that no one in the vicinity could be harmed. Meaning they did exactly what witnesses said they did. They pulled up in their vehicles, grabbed their guns and started shooting  immediately,  into the bed of a pickup truck, in front of a school, while school was in session.According to the mayor, two dogs were killed inside the truck. A third was killed  after it exited the truck.  That means they were shooting at a moving target in front of the school, with people standing all around.The shooting was justified because, according to the mayor, the three dogs were a greater threat to the public than a hailstorm of bullets.The mayor stated that the officers involved in the shooting outside the school were in communication with the city s only animal control officer.It s likely this is the same animal control officer that was on the scene when Bear was killed.In a Twitter post, Fry points out that it s not only police that she wants to see held accountable.Image credit: Chris Christie on Twitter, via PuppycideBDIn his 2013 statement, Mayor Linder also said, We don t want to be known as a place that abuses animals or kills dogs. How about not allowing laughing cops to get away with killing innocent family pets, like Bear, who had never even been accused of biting anyone?Fry is in search of an attorney who will help bring the officers that killed Bear to justice.You can donate to Fry s legal fund here.*Featured image credit: Bear, via Chris Christie on Facebook