Update on the Mattia case - Page 3

The choke collar broke because of the dog "running from" the officer, after being shot or shot at, would be my guess.

Oh yes, the infamous, sensational , always good for a breaking story St. Marys Today (news blog). It is our local competition to the National Enquirer, lol.

Sunsilver, chains break at the weakest points, which is always the welded area. Every link can break!

Is there another crime scene technician here who cares to offer an opinion or an alternative to what one told me by looking at the photo with the broken chain link collar?

Why was the collar not attached to the hook of the yellow cable? Answer: Because the dog was either never attached to the cable (running loose or breaking loose before the shooting incident) or the scene was staged for the photo op! Opinions?

Regardless, nobody will ever know what really happened, because an incident like that does not warrant a true crime scene investigation.

BTW, I passed the Mattia's house today. They still have their signs out.

Chris

I do not trust reporters, writers, or anyone whose job it is to stir up hysteria at the expense of truth and reason. I also must acknowledge that we have no way of knowing if ANY contact occurred between dog and officer before he decided to take out his frustrations on the hapless animal. He may well have removed the collar prior to the execution to avoid the appearance of shooting a restrained animal. This incident disturbs me particularly because there was NO evidence of ANY bite. If a bite occurred it was so minor as to be invisible and require no care.  Furthermore this was not a young rambunxious dog, and had no previous record of confrontations. Supposedly the officer had met the dog on a previous occasion (without incident). I find it extremely difficult to believe that he had any reasonable fear for his safety. In all likelihood the sheriff made the public statement that department policy had not been violated (probably true) while privately making a very real threat of severe consequences should he ever again show such poor judgement. He may well be subject to some departmental sanction such as pay cut or demotion while the sheriff maintains the public image for the sake of liability, etc. If he worked for me my disgust would be made abundantly clear in a private meeting. This all leaves a foul taste in my mouth, and I sincerely hope that some effort has been made to right this wrong. Best Wishes, Jonah

It doesn't take a crystal ball to see how this was going to turn out. Was there ever a chance there would be a different outcome?

Nope.

What are the choices????

Oops, our officer got a little over anxious and maybe shot your dog when he really should have stayed back. We'll just go ahead and say our Dept. screwed up for the record. I'm sure the animal rights folks will understand sh*t happens. Sorry about your dog. Were gonna look real good when your lawyer chews us up and spits us out using the evidence we give you in an official statement. My career will be better now that I have reported the truth.

Or maybe....

Where's that Sheriff?? Get his butt in here right now.... I'm getting heat from all different directions about your trigger happy Deputy that now has his third kill. Tell him the pictures of the dogs on the squad cars are not the number of kills, but to let people know there's a K-9 inside. It's not a contest!

You got to make this go away, bury it deep. It's an election year you know and we don't need the negative publicity. Do this and don't screw it up or I'll make you the bafoon here. Say you're conducting an investigation....that will hold them over till things cool off. Get all the evidence and get rid of it, I don't care what it is,,,,we don't need any skeletons in the closet coming back to haunt us. Nothing is black and white and thank goodness no one was there to say what really happened. You have to make this look reasonable. Make some pictures that look convincing.... Get creative, make it sound good...The dog was off it's chain and lunging at the Deputy, there was no proof of rabies so we had to take the dog, the additional officers, animal control, and ambulance was a good thought. With all those vehicles present with lights flashing, it had to look like something serious went down,,,nice touch,someone was thinking, Now go write that investigation up and sit on it for a few weeks until things cool down. Can you do that???

You can bet all the evidence, hospitial reports, pictures, collar, etc. are going in the trash can real fast to prevent anyone from trying to blow this thing up by finding out, there was no hospitial report or pictures of the bite, there were lead deposits from the bullet on the chain, etc. Funny how the folks being investigated are investigated by the same office they work for and they gather all the evidence that could be used against them. Then spin a predictable story no one can refute.

What would they say if someone got the chain and took it to a lab where it was determined by an independent agency that the chain had lead deposits on it. That would sort of blow the investigation away. What would happen if it's the same Deputy that shot the teenager in SC and prior events were convieniently not disclosed because the charges were dropped.?

Dog1,  First I nearly died laughing to the beginning of your post,  Then as I read on,  It got more serious and really makes you stop and think... Good Post.   This is certainly a case of things that make ya go mmmmmm.

Well I hope no criminals give my address instead of their own, or the LE read it wrong because my animals would be dead, even my bad tempered bunny. Sorry for Max and his family that the law we pay to protect us will also kill us......................................................