Travis Co. Constable's Deputy shoots dog while serving papers

AUSTIN, Texas - A Pitt-bull named "Donny" was shot by a Precinct 2 Constable's Deputy on Thursday.

The officer remotely cued up his dash cam right before he fired.

"The video is going to show that when the dog advanced to him, towards him in an aggressive manner that he was inches away from actually biting the deputy. So there would have been no other time to use any other type of weapon," Morales said.

Chief Deputy George Morales with the Travis County Precinct 2 Constable's office says Deputy Lawrence Edwards was serving papers on the 1400 block of Click Cove when the dog from the unit next door charged him. As the incident was unfolding, he remotely turned on his dash cam.

"First thing, is you know it's a sad situation. Nobody wants to shoot a dog, nobody wants to even pull their firearm out," he said.

Morales said the officer followed protocol.

"He did everything he had to do by shouting at the owner to try to get the dog. He followed up with actually screaming at the dog and yelling at it to get it to stop and the dog advanced on him. So by our policy and procedures, he did follow it," Morales said.

Donny's owner declined to speak with us on Friday but neighbors came to his defense.

One man who says he saw the whole thing told us off-camera the dog's owner was feet away from the dog trying to get him when the officer fired his gun.

Neighbor Terri Cobb says she only saw the aftermath of the shooting...we showed her the dash cam video.

"My opinion is I think it was uncalled for. I think it could have been handled more like pepper spray, take a bat out," Cobb said.

Cobb says as far as she knows, Donny wasn't aggressive or mean and she had never seen him attacking people. But without experiencing this situation first-hand, she says she isn't sure what she would have done if she were in the officer's shoes.

"It's just a sad deal because he lost his best buddy, a puppy dog. But at the same time, you don't want a dog attacking somebody else and hurting them...and I wasn't in that position to say 'My life's in danger, I'm gonna shoot him,' you know what I mean?" Cobb said.

The Precinct 2 Constable's office says Deputy Edwards has been with the agency for 5 years and loves animals.

They say he is shaken up by what happened.