ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — 9 Investigates has now obtained some video recorded after an Orange County deputy shot a dog while she was resting in her backyard. The deputies were attempting to serve an arrest warrant at a neighboring home for an alleged robbery of a cell phone.
Investigative reporter Daralene Jones obtained a cell phone video and a few body camera videos, all of the videos only show what happened after the pitbull, Audi, was shot.
Kimberly Vanderbilt can be heard in a cell phone vide yelling, “Just save her, just save her, that’s it, just save her, just save her!”
Vanderbilt was desperately frantic in the moments after an Orange County deputy shot her pitbull, Audi. The deputy who shot Audi can be heard saying, “I don’t know anymore, we’re trying to apply pressure to stop the bleeding.”
She rushed to record what she could on her cell phone, in the moments after as another deputy uses his hands and gauze, applying pressure to try and stop the bleeding. And for the first time, we hear from the deputy who actually shot, Audi. “I didn’t hear the dogs. When we came back here, I didn’t think there was any dogs in the backyard, I thought they were inside the house. (inaudible) You should’ve just knocked on the door,” the officer said.
Two deputies entered Vanderbilt’s fenced-in backyard in an effort to secure the perimeter of a neighboring home an area not far from Colonial Drive and Good Homes Road. They had an arrest warrant for a man accused of robbing his ex-girlfriend of her cell phone, who they didn’t find that day. Vanderbilt has filed a federal lawsuit against the sheriff’s office and the deputies, which argues citizens have the right to be free from unreasonable entry unto their private property.
Orange County’s policy allows officers to kill animals that are seriously wounded or dangerous, when all other disposition is impractical. Attorney Mark Lipman has no dog in the fight, so we asked for his expert view as a property rights attorney. “When they did enter, they didn’t knock on the door and identify themselves and tell her to secure her animal and based on what I’ve learned they had beware of dogs signs all over the property, so they were well aware that there’s potential for an animal to be there,” Lippman said.
Body camera video that Vanderbilt’s attorney has obtained only gives us insight into what happened when the family finally got their dog to a vet, after the deputies initially called animal control, which informed them they couldn’t transport Audi, who managed to survive. “The vet said it was a miracle, she was hit three times with the service weapon from the officer and he fired five times,” Vanderbilt said.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office said it would not comment because of the pending litigation.
Read our previous coverage here.
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