Vickie Malone had just taken her kids inside to celebrate her 5-year-old son’s birthday with cake and ice cream when her small son Eli exclaimed, “There’s something wrong with Opie,” as he gazed out the window of their Wynnewood house.
The birthday cake and ice cream hadn’t even been served when the partygoers heard a gunshot from outside, and they quickly realized it was the sound of a Wynnewood police officer killing the family dog Opie.
Opie, Eli’s closest companion, was a three-year-old, 90-pound American Bulldog/Pit Bull mix named Opie. Eli said that he used to have a lot of fun with him when he ran around and they played tag. Things would become much worse on Eli’s birthday when the police shot at the dog again in front of youngsters. The measures were legitimate, according to the police agency.
As the grownups hurried outside, they saw Opie at the yard’s fence. Vickie Malone recounted that Opie was over here kicking and struggling for breath. Meanwhile, the officer fetched a gun from his police van and used it to dispatch the dog, firing two bullets from the rifle. Malone said the kids were all looking out the window.
“Why’d you shoot my dog?” Rio Youngblood, Malone’s son and Opie’s legal owner, questioned the officer. Yet he received no response. Youngblood said he comes carefully out to his vehicle, takes an AR-15, aims it at the dog, and fires the trigger. He shoots another bullet, and it kills the dog.” He drove away with his head down.
Opie’s corpse was then left on the ground, covered with a towel, for more than an hour as the family waited for another police officer to come and collect statements from the family while a 5-year-old’s birthday celebration was destroyed in the worst manner possible.
The police officer reportedly informed Malone that the dog rushed at him over the fence at first. According to Wynnewood Police Chief Ken Moore, the officer said the dog was violent and charged at him from around the corner of the home. Moore said that the cop attempted to push the dog off of him before shooting him.
A video showing the aftermath of the shooting, on the other hand, offers a different image. The deceased dog, with a gunshot wound to his head, is seen lying within the fence that surrounds the property in the video. It’s conceivable, though, that the dog returned to the opposite side of the fence after being shot.
Due of the barrier, one would assume that the officer was on the property if he felt intimidated by the dog. The accounts, though, are contradictory. Although Malone claims the police informed her the dog attempted to attack him over the fence, Chief Moore seems to imply the officer was on the property.
Malone said that the dog cannot leap the fence. The dog might have gotten his head through the fence, but he couldn’t open it. Yet, Chief Moore portrays the officer as having entered the property since, according to Chief Moore, the officer was serving a warrant, which gave him legal authorization to be on private land.
No one at the party, according to Malone, was ever presented a warrant. However, they were merely informed that the police was searching for someone who had identified that location as his home a decade before. He said he was looking to see whether a man named Shon McNiel lived here, and no one here had ever heard of him, Malone recounted.
McNiel was wanted on a warrant from a 10-year-old case. The police chief said that the Malones’ residence was his last known address, yet he also confessed that his agency was aware the Malones had resided there for the previous year. He also stated that the home was a “rent house” and that many individuals had moved in and out during the previous decade.
Nonetheless, Chief Moore defends his officer and his presence on the property, claiming that he had to start someplace in order to execute the warrant. Malone isn’t convinced. She told that she appreciate what the cops do, but this was unnecessary. He didn’t express any regret and didn’t even appear like he was sorry or anything.
The Malones, who have recognised the officer involved as Officer Josh Franklin, believe their dog’s death could have been avoided if the officer had simply used less-lethal force or fact-checked the warrant before attempting to serve it at what was clearly the incorrect address. Moreover, they claim Officer Franklin knew their address and was aware of the dog.
Rather, Eli is left missing his best friend, with the memory that his friend was killed on his birthday — something that will most likely stay with him for the rest of his life. Eli carved a small wooden cross to mark Opie’s final resting place in the backyard. Although it’s heartbreaking to lose a dear friend, Eli believes it’s even more heartbreaking that no one from the Wynnewood Police Department has shown regret.
Although the mayor promised that the event would be discussed at the next city council meeting and admitted th the officer who killed the dog had previously engaged in questionable behaviour, this did little to comfort the party’s younger guests, some of whom are refusing to go outside to play after witnessing the horror. Eli is not alone in his sadness. Youngblood said that his son Vrylend is still in grieving over Opie’s death. He siad that he walked outside last night and he’s on the. He is singing to Opie’s heart. He is missing him.
