Eyewitnesses dispute deputies' version of events after dog shot, killed following Gasparilla
TAMPA, Fla. - The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office is investigating after a mounted deputy shot and killed a dog following Saturday's Gasparilla parade.
Deputies say the dog charged at the horses three times, biting one of them in the leg.
Three witnesses FOX 13 News spoke with said some of the information released by the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office contradicts what they say happened.
According to HCSO, the dog's owner made no apparent attempts to run after the dog, but all three witnesses say he did. When the witnesses tried to offer statements to law enforcement, all three say they got push back and say deputies threatened to arrest them.
Cell phone video captured the confrontational moments between witnesses and deputies just seconds after a mounted Hillsborough County Sheriff's deputy shot and killed the dog. Michelle Williams was petting it right before it was killed.
“He licked me right in the face and then the mounted patrol came by," Williams said. "As soon as that happened he got distracted and took off.”
HCSO said the dog charged at the horses, biting one of them in the leg.
"He didn't charge,” Williams said. “He just kind of ran up.”
Deputies said the owner made no apparent attempts to go after him.
"The owner immediately ran after him and was running from horse to horse trying to catch him," Williams said.
Before he got loose, one witness says the dog's owner, a homeless man, tried to pull the dog away from the street as the horses were approaching, but say the dog froze in fear of the large animals. Deputies said the dog got loose after being tied to a gate.
"It seems like they really didn't give him enough time and they kept coming closer and closer and the dog was visibly afraid of the horses," witness Justin Schwegel said.
Schwegel said he tried to give statements to law enforcement and got initial push back until a deputy did talk to him.
"He was sort of joking with the mounted officer and he came up to me and I said, 'This really isn't funny, I wish you wouldn't joke about this,'” Schwegel said. “He sort of got in my face and said, 'Is that how we are going to start this off?'"
Deputies held the dog's owner under the Baker Act after they say he made threatening statements to harm the deputies on scene and himself. Investigators said a knife was found in the man's pocket.
"He was just laying on top of the dog and immediately when that happened police tried to force everyone out of the area," Williams said.
HCSO says the horses weren't hurt. The entire incident is under investigation.