out of control police murder two more dogs
and they wonder why people cheered in Oakland
http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/623439.html?imw=Y
Rita Patterson and her father, Daniel Patterson, hold photos of their dogs killed by police.
John Hickey/Buffalo News
Updated: 03/30/09 08:21 AM
Police shoot, kill two dogs during raid
Family says animals did not pose a threat
By Aaron Besecker
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
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A South Buffalo family wants answers after police shot and killed two of their dogs during a raid Saturday, leaving blood puddled on a living-room carpet and speckled on the wall.
Police, who were looking for a drug suspect and narcotics, left the Indian Church Road home without finding any evidence or arresting anyone, according to residents of the house.
The incident has left the family distraught and angry over the loss of the dogs, Essy and Moosey.
“It was just the most traumatizing, horrible thing,” said Rita M. Patterson, 27, who lives in the house with her 68-year-old father, Daniel J. Patterson.
Rita Patterson’s boyfriend, William F. Hanavan, 32, paroled last year after serving eight months in prison on a drug charge, was home but was not taken into custody Saturday.
However, Hanavan was arrested on a felony assault charge Sunday afternoon, Buffalo police reported.
When police stormed the house on Indian Church Road, near Seneca Street, at about 5:30 p. m. Saturday, Daniel Patterson was on the couch, watching the news.
“They shot the dogs for no reason at all,” he told The Buffalo News on Sunday.
Rita Patterson said she was cooking dinner in the kitchen when she heard loud noises at the side door. Hanavan was upstairs taking a nap, and at first she thought he may have fallen out of bed.
Before she knew what was happening, police wearing masks and helmets and carrying automatic weapons had broken through the door. They tied her hands with a zip tie and put her on the floor.
Her father pleaded with police not to shoot the dogs, but they wouldn’t allow him to grab the dogs and put them in another room, Patterson said.
One of the officers started firing a shotgun at the two dogs, one a pit bull and the other a pit bull-boxer mix.
One of the dogs was shot three times: once in the throat, once in the back and the last time in the leg while trying to run away, Rita Patterson said.
The other dog was cowering behind a table. Neither was a threat to the police, the residents said.
The police had a warrant for the home, but it named no suspects. It said only that investigators were looking for a white male and Hydrocodone. Information that led to the warrant, according to the warrant itself, came partly from an informant, Rita Patterson said.
Hanavan was paroled in February 2008 after he served more than eight months of a one-to three-year sentence for fifth-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, a Class D felony.
Hanavan was arrested Sunday following an assault at about 3:30 p. m. on Indian Church Road near the site of the raid.
Hanavan and a second suspect are accused of pinning down a man and punching and kicking him repeatedly, said Buffalo police spokesman Michael J. DeGeorge. The man suffered numerous injuries and was taken to Mercy Hospital.
It’s not known how or if the incident is connected to the previous day’s raid, DeGeorge said.
Police did have a warrant for the address, DeGeorge said, though he would not comment on who the target may have been or what police were looking for.
“It’s part of an ongoing undercover operation,” DeGeorge said.
Rita Patterson said she will be talking with a lawyer today.
“There’s not even a word to describe the pain I feel,” she said.
DeGeorge, the police spokesman, said the Pattersons have a right to request an investigation through the department’s Professional Standards Division.
DeGeorge did point to the inherent danger police generally face when raiding a home.
“Executing a search warrant, police never know what they’re going to find on the other side of that door,” DeGeorge said. “In most cases, these can be life and death situations.”
News Staff Reporter Stephen T. Watson contributed to this report.
