(Photo is a screenshot from Anthony Weem's video.)
In May of 2010, a small deer wandered into East Oakland. It ran down 90th street before the police corned it in a backyard.
Many neighborhood children were very excited to see the deer. "We called it 'Bambi...it was a baby," said Kim McLemore whose backyard the deer had entered.
The police then decided that this was a safety issue, and even though animal control was en-route with tranquilizer darts a sergeant made a decision to kill the deer and an officer fired 7 times with a 40 caliber glock before they managed to kill it.
Anthony Weems who took amateur video of the incident says the shots scared the whole neighborhood: ""Do they understand how this feels? Just because we hear gunshots, doesn't mean it's something you can ever get used to."
According to a May 3rd report by ABC7's Alan Wang the police initially defended their decision to kill the deer, but by May 5th Police Chief Batts said he was "unhappy" with how the situation was handled and Officer Jeff Thomason said that new procedures were going to be put in place to make sure this didn't happen again.
Internal affairs was investigating why the shooting happened at all. It is unknown if the sergeant who ordered the killing or the officer who executed that order were disciplined.
Video:
References:
- Wang, Alan "Oakland Police Criticized for Shooting Deer" ABC7: May 3, 2010
- "Oakland Cops Consider Police After Shooting Deer" ABC7: May 5, 2010
