Coeur d’Alene’s police chief has admitted the controversial police shooting of a dog inside a parked van last week was “a regrettable tragedy”. At this weeks City Council meeting, interim Chief Ron Clark addressed last Wednesday’s fatal shooting of the 2-year-old black Labrador named Arfee. The incident has divided the community.
Clark said he reached out to the dog’s owner, Craig Jones, a former Coeur d’Alene resident now living in Colorado, and told him he was sorry about the incident. Jones left Arfee in the van and returned to find a bullet hole through the window, which had been left partially open, and his dog missing. Police had removed the dog’s body from his vehicle.
The dog was shot to death by a city police officer, who initially reported Arfee was a pit bull that had lunged at him as he went to check on the van in the parking lot of a Coeur d'Alene espresso shop. But photos of the partially opened van window with a large bullet have raised more questions about why the officer would have to use a gun to defend himself.
Chief Clark says the department’s investigation will be reviewed by the city’s legal department, the administration and an outside authority yet to be identified. The results will he shared with the public.