Did Shadow Have To Die? Video Of Fort Worth Cop Shooting Beloved Dog Brings Call For Justice

Shadow was the playful and dearly loved seven-year-old dog belonging to Robin Fairchild and her ex-husband, Lonnie Reynolds — but Shadow is no longer their dog because on February 5, a Fort Worth, Texas, police officer blasted the rambunctious little dog with a shotgun.

Now, about two months after the shooting, police have released video of the incident. Be warned: the video, above, contains disturbing images.

The dog at the time was with Reynolds, who is both disabled — with a prosthetic leg — and homeless, and was living in a tent in an area occupied by the city’s homeless population.

As the video, taken from an officer’s body-camera, shows, police entered the area for some reason with shotguns cocked and at the ready.

The officers approach Lonnie Reynolds’ tent — though the sound on the video is poor quality, one of the officers seems to tell Reynolds to restrain his dog. At that point, the officers have seen neither Reynolds nor Shadow, who are both concealed inside the makeshift tent.

The dog and its owner were asleep at the time.

But Shadow breaks free and runs out of the tent. Within a split second, at the 2:40 mark of the above video, an officer fires his shotgun at point blank range at Shadow.

The wounded dog then runs off in another direction. Reynolds, who later said that the sleeping dog was alarmed by the noise made by the invading officers,, can then be seen rushing out of the tent in a panic — not even having time to attach his prosthetic leg.

Shadow, a mix of pit bull and Rhodesian Ridgeback, was badly wounded, but soon came back to his owner, bleeding profusely.

Reynolds and Fairchild took Shadow to a vet, but their hearts were broken when the beloved dog was deemed to be past the point of help, and instead, was suffering pointlessly from the cop’s shotgun blast. They were forced to put Shadow to sleep.

“I’m more upset,” said Fairchild, pictured above, after viewing the video of Shadow’s shooting. “I’m more upset to see what happened. I don’t believe Shadow had a chance.”

A Fort Worth police spokesperson said the officers were “under the impression” that there was a “loose pit bull” in the homeless camp, and that “drug activity” was taking place there.

“In this case, the officer had less than a second and the dog was lunging at him, and our officers are not going to take a bite from a dog,” said police Corporal Tracey Knight.

Shadow was far from the only dog shot by police recently. In fact, police officers shoot dogs frequently, often with very little provocation and in some cases with children present and watching.

Robin Fairchild has now started an online campaign, “Justice For Shadow,” aimed at stopping the shooting of dogs by police.

[Image: Justice For Shadow Facebook]