The owners of a dog say an off-duty Hartford, Vt., police officer was out of line this weekend when he shot and killed their dog at a public park after a fight broke out between the 2-year-old pit bull and one of the officer’s two huskies.
Cheryl Gray, 44, who took the slain dog named Diesel on one of their regular visits to the Watson Upper Valley Dog Park in Hartford on Saturday, said the two dogs tussled after one husky lunged toward Diesel from atop a picnic table while the officer, Logan Scelza, was using his phone on a bench about 15 yards away.
She acknowledged Diesel “had (the red husky) by the neck.” Gray said Scelza ran over, tried to pull the dogs apart before firing three “warning” shots into the ground and then shooting Diesel four times – once in the face and three times in the chest.
There were about a dozen other people, including a 4-year-old girl, in the dog park at the time of the shooting.
“I can’t get it out of my head at all,” a distraught Gray said through tears Monday. “It was unnecessary force.”
She said she doesn’t want the incident to be ignored because of the stigmas against pit bulls, a catch-all term for several similar breeds including American Staffordshire terriers, or because the shooter is an officer.
She was also angered by the first news release that the Hartford Police Department sent out about the incident Saturday night because she felt it singled out Diesel’s breed in the title and suggested that Scelza’s dogs were “exercising” as if to say that hers was clearly the aggressor.
Messages left Monday for Scelza were not returned. He has been placed on administrative leave while Vermont State Police investigate the incident, according to Hartford police Chief Phil Kasten. The investigator, Sgt. Michael Notte, declined comment on the state and scope of the investigation.
Diesel belonged to John Justin Demers, who goes by Justin and who is roommates with Gray’s boyfriend. Gray was close to Diesel – she refers to him as “my dog” – and said she took him to the dog park three times a week for most of his life, largely without incident.
Gray said that Saturday Diesel, Scelza’s huskies and several other dogs initially were playing nicely at the park – which is fenced-in and requires dogs to be off-leash.
Several people were sitting around a picnic table when Diesel came over for head pats. He was followed by a red husky, who jumped up on the picnic table with another dog overlooking Diesel, Gray said.
The black husky then “mosied over” near Diesel, she said, and all of the dogs were getting petted when she heard a growl.
“I went, ‘Was that Diesel or the other guy?’ ” Gray recalled.
She said she commanded Diesel to come to her and he started to, but then the red husky “jumped off the table and went right for Diesel . . . and then they were fighting.”
“Diesel had him by the throat. He did,” Gray said. “I probably would too if I had two huskies in my face.”
Gray said Scelza ran over, leapt in the air and body-slammed Diesel, which she believes “made it worse” instead of getting the dogs to disengage.
“(Scelza) was punching and punching (Diesel) in the face, and then he was punching him in the ribs and pulling on his collar the whole time,” Gray said, who spoke deliberately and paused often to fight back sobs.
“He turned around to me and said, ‘I’m going to shoot your dog.’ And I was screaming ‘No!’ He pointed (the gun) at Diesel and shot him right in the eye and Diesel fell to the ground, and then he shot him three more times.”
Gray estimated the altercation lasted less than a minute.
“I didn’t even have time to react except saying no, stop, no, stop, I just remember saying those two words,” she said. “He never touched his dog one time, not once.”
She wasn’t sure if the black husky got involved.
An eyewitness, Gabby Lamotte, gave roughly the same account as Gray when talking to Valley News reporters Sunday and Monday, although she thought that both huskies were involved. She said she didn’t realize that the red husky had been on the table behind her until she later talked to her boyfriend, who was also there.
“It happened so fast,” Lamotte said. “The pit bull definitely did not start it.”
Gray said two older men comforted her as Scelza retrieved his phone and a shoe that had fallen off.
She said one of the men told Scelza he shouldn’t leave until the police got there. She said he told them, “Don’t worry, I work for the Hartford Police Department.”
Gray said both huskies were on their feet while Scelza gathered his things. Police have not detailed the severity of the injuries to the husky, which is home recovering.
In a second news release Sunday night – issued in text and video format – Kasten offered his department’s “deepest sympathies and condolences to the family and friends of both dogs involved in (the fight). Both families, those praying on a speedy recovery for their family pet, and those grieving the loss of a member of their family are in our hearts, minds and prayers today.”
“Although the police officer was off-duty at the time of this incident, both he and our entire police department recognize that we’re held to a higher professional standard,” Kasten said. “However, that standard does not supersede the rights of any party involved to due process, including being innocent until proven guilty.”
Kasten said several online threats toward people involved are being investigated, and called for threats against the Scelza, his family and other the police department to stop.
Gray said that in about two years going to the dog park, Diesel had one other altercation, less than two weeks ago. She said a rottweiler was being pushy and would not leave Diesel alone when she told Diesel to sit with her, so she asked the rottweiler’s owner to move the dog away. The woman did, but when she let go of the rottweiler’s collar, Gray said, it lunged at Diesel and they scuffled before being easily broken up.
She said she wants to see video cameras installed at the dog park.
Demers and Gray buried Diesel in their backyard on Saturday night, erecting a large headstone on which the housemates plan to inscribe Diesel’s name.
“I’ll never have a dog again,” Demers said. “There’s no way I can replace that dog.”
State police have asked anyone with information pertinent to the investigation to email michael.notte@vermont.gov or call 802-773-9101.