Days before Christmas, a family on the Westside buried their dog after an officer shot and killed him. Now, the owner is demanding answers.
A police report from The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office says Officer Victor Jones was responding to an alarm going off at the house Wednesday afternoon. The officer said that he went around the back to check for any signs of forced entry when the dog in the backyard approached him in an aggressive manner. He shot him in the head in response.
Matthew Long said his 11-year-old dog, Prophet, wasn’t aggressive.
The police report said the officer was wearing a body camera. Now, Long wants to see the footage for himself. “They have them for a reason. They're there to protect them and protect us,” he said.
Every day Long's sons, Aidan and Dylan, come home from school at around 2:30 p.m., and turn off the alarm at the house.
Long has to deactivate the system with Comcast Home Security. He made two separate phone calls to Comcast explaining his kids were coming home from school. At 2:35 p.m., a text message from Comcast said the alarm had been canceled.
"Then a police officer showed up and shot my dog,” said Long.
"He didn't even say sorry to us when he shot him. He just walked away like it was nothing,” said Aidan.
"My dog's body was lying on the yard, the whole side of his face gone,” Matthew Long said with tears.
Long got a call from his kids, crying hysterically.
"I was absolutely irate,” Long said. "Why didn't he have rubber bullets, a beanbag gun, or something?"
Later that night, the family was forced to dig a hole and bury Prophet in their own backyard.
Long says Prophet was not vicious. He was 11 years old, had arthritis and not youthful enough to lunge at an officer.
"His back legs were really stiff. He barely got around. He hobbled. We'd have to help him hop on the bed,” said Long.
According to JSO records, Jones has had 12 civilian complaints filed against him from 2003-2017. Only two of them were sustained.
Long said he would be filing one as well.
The community is outraged as evidence by Long's post on Facebook about the incident, which has over 15,000 shares. He said doesn’t want this to happen to anyone else and that he's looking for a lawyer.
"Maybe Comcast needs to ask their customers, ‘Do you have dogs?’ so we can let the officer that shows up know,” he said.
First Coast News has requested the body camera footage associated with this incident from JSO and asked for a comment. We have not heard back.
Stay with First Coast News as this story develops.