Jury Awards Dog Owner $1.2M, Pet Shot By Cop

PASADENA, MD -- A Glen Burnie family was awarded over $1 million after a jury decided that an Anne Arundel County Police officer unjustly shot and killed their family dog in February 2014. Initially, after the shooting, an Anne Arundel County Police investigation cleared the officer of wrongdoing, stating that the dog was aggressive.

Cary Hansel, the attorney representing Michael Reeves, the owner of the dog, Vern, said the killing was "senseless, unnecessary and unconstitutional." The officer who shot the dog, Rodney Price, shot the dog twice at close range. "The duty to serve and protect extends to our animal family members as well," Hansel said in a prepared statement.

Officer Price was investigating a burglary in the 900 block of Lombarde Circle in Pasadena on Feb. 1, 2014, when he encountered Vern, a Chesapeake Bay retriever, in the front area outside of the home.

Two months after the shooting, in April 2014, Reeves posted on Patch about the loss of Vern.

“On April 26, 2014 my best friend Ches-a-bar Vernon Goldnut Reeves would have been 5 years old. He was shot and killed by a one year rookie police officer of Anne Arundel County PD(north). Vern was in his own yard at the time of the murder. I am heading home this week from Afghanistan to be with his remains and his partner Jazz. May my boy continue to swim in the Heavens of the Chesapeake! Buddy I miss you and will see you very soon.”

The Capital Gazette reported that a jury sided with the Reeves family and awarded them $1.26 million in the lawsuit, disregarding an Anne Arundel County police investigation into the incident that said Vern was aggressive. Photographs of Price after the shooting showed muddy paw prints on his pants and shirt.

“Vern had absolutely no history of aggression, I have never heard him growl in a menacing manner and he did not attack Officer Price,” the family said on their Facebook page Justice for Vern.

The Anne Arundel County Office of Law, which represented the police department in the case, declined to comment on the case. And the police department referred all questions to the Office of Law.

Article image via Michael Reeves