ARLINGTON, TX (CBS) — Police released an officer’s body cam video less than 24 hours after the rookie officer shot and killed a woman lying in the grass, while trying to shoot a dog charging at him.
CBS DFW reports the rookie officer in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, who was released from supervised duty on July 1, responded to a welfare check Thursday about a woman who appeared to be passed out in a grassy area behind the plaza.
Footage from the officer’s body-worn camera released Friday shows the officer walking along a sidewalk and calling out, “Hello. Are you OK?”
The woman replies, “Yeah, I’m fine.” A dog approaches and the officer asks, “Is that your dog?”
As the barking dog runs toward him, the officer yells, “Get back!” He begins to back up and then fires three shots. The woman screams, “Oh my God!” and continues to cry out.
Police Chief Will Johnson said at a news conference that the dog, which he described as a Labrador mix, weighed about 40 pounds. Investigators think the dog belonged to the woman, who the Tarrant County medical examiner’s office identified as 30-year-old Maggie Brooks.
Brooks is the daughter of an Arlington Fire Department captain, CBS News has learned.
Brooks was shot in the “upper torso,” Johnson said. The dog suffered a flesh wound and has been quarantined, the chief said.
“Everything about this call is an absolute tragedy,” a somber Johnson said. “Our hearts are broken for the Brooks family and for the officer involved. Our officer was on scene trying to find an individual who may be suffering from a medical emergency. Clearly, this is not the outcome the officer wanted, nor is it the outcome that the department wanted.”
To read the full CBS News article, and watch the body cam footage, click here.
