Debate rages after St. Louis County deputy
shoots family's dog
Jason Jacobs said he had no choice but to suffocate his badly injured
dog, Rugar, as he held him in his lap.
“I was just crying my eyes out,” the rural Aurora man said. “I just
covered his nose. He just drifted away.”
Jacobs said the loss of his pet of seven years has been made more
painful by the circumstances of the pit bull’s death.
The dog was shot July 8 by a St. Louis County Sheriff’s deputy who had
come to serve legal papers at the home of Jacobs and his wife, Angie Jarvis.
No one in the Sheriff’s Office disputes that Deputy Chris Cazin shot the
dog. The deputy said in a police report that he shot in self-defense as the dog
lunged at him. His superiors agreed with his account.
Jacobs and Jarvis say their dog wasn’t the type to attack — but if Cazin
did feel threatened, he had options beyond shooting him. They say the Sheriff’s
Office has poured salt in their wounds by what they call a callous response to
their questions about the shooting.
“We wouldn’t be so upset if there was some kind of sympathy,” Jacobs
said. “He just shot our dog and left him suffering.”
“I don’t apologize for the actions (Cazin) had to take,” Sheriff Ross
Litman said.
A police report was filed as policy because Cazin discharged his weapon,
Litman said. The report says the camera in Cazin’s car shows the dog coming at
the deputy, but the shooting was out of the camera’s range.
Jacobs and Jarvis said they were not home at the time.
An outcry
Jacobs’ Facebook post about his dog’s shooting by a sheriff’s deputy
prompted an outraged response.
And, as social media goes, a lot of misinformation has been offered and
gobbled up.
“The online and public reaction has been basically outright lies,”
Litman said this week.
Litman said his deputies deal with dogs often in their duties and they
rarely use a gun on one. He said Cazin had no other option.
“The dog lunged,” he said. “The deputy shot him.”
Cazin said the dog ran off into the woods and he searched to no avail.
He left a notice on the door handle of the home telling the homeowners to
contact the Sheriff’s Office for a non-emergency matter, the kind typically
left when a deputy comes to serve papers and finds no one home. Cazin said he
didn’t write anything on the door hanger about the shooting.
Cazin did not respond to a message seeking comment left by the News
Tribune on his cell phone.
Jacobs and Jarvis said they had been away on a grocery trip for about 35
minutes and came home to find Rugar by the house, bleeding. Jacobs said the dog
had been shot in the nose, through the throat and into his paw.
After calling a veterinarian and consulting with his wife, who is a
nurse, Jacobs said he put Rugar out of his misery.
The shooting
Here is how the incident transpired, according to the police report:
Cazin saw Rugar and the Jacobs’ other dog, a boxer-like mixed breed,
barking in front of his squad car as he drove the quarter-mile down the
driveway just before 10 a.m. that Sunday.
Jacobs said Cazin was delivering a court judgment against Jarvis to pay
a medical bill. St. Louis County court records show it was for $1,800.
Cazin parked with his squad car facing the home. Camera footage confirms
that the dogs remained in front of the squad car, barking. Cazin waited in his
car “for some time” until the smaller dog came toward the driver’s side of the
car.
Cazin said he got out of his car and the smaller dog came up to him and
acted friendly.
The pit bull still acted aggressively, Cazin said. The report says the
camera footage confirms this, though much of the action takes place off-camera
past the driver’s side of the car as Cazin tried to approach the home.
As Cazin began to walk toward the home, the pit bull came to the front
of the car, barking and snarling, he said. He said he yelled at the dog but it
would not back down.
Taking another step, the dog began walking toward him, Cazin said. He
then decided to take his Taser from his holster and shoot it into the air,
often an effective way to scare off dogs, Litman said.
Cazin said the dog retreated slightly, but stopped and moved toward him
again when the deputy started walking. He shot the Taser two more times and the
dog retreated to the passenger side of the car.
The Taser records were downloaded Monday and show that Cazin fired it
three times in a matter of 14 seconds at 10:01 a.m.
Cazin does not carry pepper spray, the incident report said. He relies
on his Taser for protection outside of his firearm.
As Cazin made his way to the house, Rugar came around the squad car and
advanced on the deputy again, coming to within 6 feet of him, the report says.
Cazin said he yelled again but the dog continued and went into a “crouched
position and charged at me.”
Cazin said he waved the papers he was trying to deliver at the dog and
he stopped a few feet away. The dog repeated his charge and Cazin fired his
gun. The dog “yelped and reared back” and then ran off, Cazin said.
He searched for the dog but couldn’t find him, and he cleared the scene
at 10:20, the report says.
The aftermath
After his dog died, Jacobs called dispatch and asked about the shooting.
At 12:30 that afternoon, Cazin called Jacobs.
Cazin said in the report that Jacobs and Jarvis were on the line “asking
why I killed the dog.” The deputy said he tried to explain, but as Jacobs got
more upset, Cazin advised him to speak to his supervisor.
The report says Jarvis spoke with Lt. Ed Kippley later in the day and
arranged to come to the Virginia office Monday.
The couple met with Kippley and Investigator Robert Tarr in the
afternoon and they asked for the report on the shooting, records of the Taser
discharges, and any camera footage from the deputy’s car, but Kippley said none
of the information had been processed yet.
The conversation was recorded and an account written by Tarr was in the
final police report.
Jarvis said she believed Cazin was lying about the threat of the dog and
his efforts to find him after the shooting, Tarr reported.
Tarr told the dog’s owners that Cazin probably thought the dog died in
the woods. He said that a deputy would not “maliciously shoot a dog.” Tarr said
he told the couple that Cazin had acted professionally.
“Based on Deputy Cazin’s description of the incident, he was justified
in shooting the dog,” Tarr wrote.
Jacobs said the conversation in Virginia lasted about 10 minutes and
they haven’t heard from the Sheriff’s Office since.
Jacobs continues to say that “it doesn’t add up” when it comes to the
police account of what happened.
Not a threat?
He said Rugar was gentle despite his imposing looks. He said he was
simply protecting his home from a stranger.
“He barks at every car that comes in,” he said. “He’s never bitten
anyone.”
But Jacobs acknowledged that the dog could appear threatening. Rugar
once forced a visiting conservation officer from the Minnesota Department of
Natural Resources to retreat into a pickup bed.
Jacobs asked why the deputy didn’t just leave when he had the chance.
“He should have just turned around,” Jacobs said.
“Did he have an opportunity to retreat? I don’t know that,” Litman said.
The sheriff said it could be reasonable for Cazin to assume he was out of
danger when the dog moved away after the Taser shots.
“I understand where they’re coming from,” Litman said of Jacobs and
Jarvis. But, he said, “the officer was in a very difficult position.”
Litman said there is no specific policy in the department regarding
confrontations with dogs. It falls under training on “use of force,” he said.
He said the warnings Cazin gave to the dog were proof of the deputy’s training.
Litman said that what’s been lost in the social media chatter is what
his deputy is feeling after the shooting.
“He’s got dogs himself,” Litman said. “I’m sure he feels bad about it.”
“I really don’t know what to do about it,” Jacobs said when asked if he
planned any action against the Sheriff’s Office.
For now, he is mired in frustration at how the couple has been treated.
“He was very rude to us,” Jacobs said of the initial call to Cazin. “I
just think this cop was a jerk. … That’s what angers me.”
Jason Jacobs said he had no choice but to suffocate his badly injured
dog, Rugar, as he held him in his lap.
“I was just crying my eyes out,” the rural Aurora man said. “I just
covered his nose. He just drifted away.”
Jacobs said the loss of his pet of seven years has been made more
painful by the circumstances of the pit bull’s death.
The dog was shot July 8 by a St. Louis County Sheriff’s deputy who had
come to serve legal papers at the home of Jacobs and his wife, Angie Jarvis.
No one in the Sheriff’s Office disputes that Deputy Chris Cazin shot the
dog. The deputy said in a police report that he shot in self-defense as the dog
lunged at him. His superiors agreed with his account.
Jacobs and Jarvis say their dog wasn’t the type to attack — but if Cazin
did feel threatened, he had options beyond shooting him. They say the Sheriff’s
Office has poured salt in their wounds by what they call a callous response to
their questions about the shooting.
“We wouldn’t be so upset if there was some kind of sympathy,” Jacobs
said. “He just shot our dog and left him suffering.”
“I don’t apologize for the actions (Cazin) had to take,” Sheriff Ross
Litman said.
A police report was filed as policy because Cazin discharged his weapon,
Litman said. The report says the camera in Cazin’s car shows the dog coming at
the deputy, but the shooting was out of the camera’s range.
Jacobs and Jarvis said they were not home at the time.