Michigan State Police say changes have been made to certain patrol cars after two dogs died of extreme heat exposure in Livingston County in 2013.

The department publicly confirmed the deaths this week — more than two years later — in response to a WDIV-TV report about a lawsuit related to how troopers are disciplined.

State police say the dogs died in June 2013 "after being accidentally left in a patrol car by their handler." The state says the Ingham County prosecutor's office cleared the trooper of any criminal wrongdoing but he was disciplined.

A Detroit-area spokesman, Lt. Mike Shaw, told The Associated Press that he didn't have details on the circumstances. Messages seeking comment were also left Thursday with a spokeswoman in Lansing.

Windows now automatically roll down under high temperatures.

A St. Louis cop investigating a double-homicide Wednesday pulled out a gun to kill a dog, but ended up shooting the dog’s owner instead, who happened to be the mother of one of the murder victims.

The woman was struck in the leg and will survive.

The dog, who was not shot, apparently did not attack the cop as he had feared. The cop’s name has not been released.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

A woman whose son was killed in a double homicide Wednesday was shot in the leg when police fired at her dog during an incident at a home near the homicide scene Thursday afternoon.

Chief Sam Dotson told reporters that at least three officers responded to a home in the 4400 block of Taft Avenue at the request of Missouri’s Children’s Division, as social workers tried to remove a 1-year-old from the home. Officers also were in the area investigating a double homicide that occurred in front of the home about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, he said.

When the social workers and at least one officer made their way into the home, a pit bull jumped a waist-high barricade that was keeping it confined to the kitchen and ran toward the officer and the social workers, Dotson told reporters.

The officer then fired one shot at the dog fearing it would attack him or the social workers, but struck a 42-year-old woman in the leg who was trying to contain the dog, he said.

Dotson characterized the woman’s injury as non-life-threatening and minor.

The shooting is reminiscent of another incident that took place in Iowa in January where a cop, also fearing for his life, shot at a dog, only to strike the dog’s owner, Autumn Steele, killing her.

The dog was only grazed and did not attack Burlington police officer Jesse Hill, who was cleared of any wrongdoing in that incident.

Then in June, an Ohio cop, also fearing for his life, shot at a family dog, only to strike a four-year-old girl instead.

Ava Ellis was struck in the leg and survived. And miraculously the dog did not attack Columbus police officer Jonathan Thomas as he had feared, even though it did not get shot.

Ellis, who is now five, continued to ask her mother, “Mommy, am I going to die?” after she was shot.

Cali was a fun-loving, caring, peaceful family dog. On March 19, 2014, she escaped the backyard fence.

When cops saw the dog, the situation turned tragic.

When the cops pulled up, Officer Brice Woolley stepped out of the car.

He then went to his car, pulled out his shotgun and shot Cali in her neck.

After he shot her, he laughed and bragged about how “awesome” it looked when her collar flew off.

She had done nothing to provoke the officer. She died immediately.

Woolley informed the animal control that he had shot the dog.

He was then seen laughing and sneering, saying, “Did you see her collar fly off when I shot her? That was awesome!”

Woolley is then reported to have said, “We’ll just write in the report that it tried to attack people in the neighborhood.”

Police have a history of bragging and laughing after committing horrendous crimes.

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A woman whose son was killed in a double homicide Wednesday was shot in the leg when police fired at her dog during an incident at a home near the homicide scene Thursday afternoon.

St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson told reporters that at least three officers responded to a home in the 4400 block of Taft Avenue at the request of the Children’s Division of the Missouri Department of Social Services, as social workers tried to remove a 1-year-old from the home. Officers also were in the area investigating a double homicide that occurred in front of the home about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, he said.

When the social workers and at least one officer made their way into the home, a pit bull jumped a waist-high barricade that was keeping it confined to the kitchen and ran toward the officer and the social workers, Dotson told reporters.

The officer then fired one shot at the dog fearing it would attack him or the social workers, but struck a woman in the leg who was trying to contain the dog, he said.

Dotson characterized the woman’s injury as minor.

He didn’t identify the woman, 42, but a police source said the woman was the mother of a man killed in Wednesday night’s double shooting.

Dotson said the officer has about three years on the force and will be placed on administrative leave, as is standard procedure following shootings. The department’s Force Investigation Unit will handle the investigation and hand over its findings to the circuit attorney’s office.

The dog has been taken by animal control and is uninjured, Dotson said.

A Lafayette family is demanding accountability after their dog was shot and killed by a Lafayette City Marshal.

It happened while marshals were arresting a man for outstanding traffic warrants.

Bryant Marks was placed under arrest for driving with a suspended license, and for hit and run.

But in the process of making the arrest, a marshal shot and killed the family's dog.

Many in the neighborhood say the shooting could have been avoided, but does the marshal's body camera video show otherwise?

Max, the family's Black Lab, is dead.

"You see that big cage? I mean you could assume that there's a big dog there. And it was a lab. Lab's are not aggressive," says Helena Jolivette, mother of the dog's owner.

Everyone in the neighborhood we spoke to IS upset over the shooting because they say Max was a loving, outgoing animal.

"(He) Doesn't bite, doesn't bark. It doesn't bark. It wouldn't attack anyone. It's a beautiful dog," says Matthew Carroll III, a neighbor.

Those neighbors say they didn't hear the dog bark or attack. All they heard were gunshots.

"He had a camera over his ear, affixed to his head somehow. So he had everything. He said that the film would show what happened, which is good. Because it would put my mind at ease. Because if the dog did get upset, then there you go," says Joe Marshall, a neighbor.

"There was really nothing else he could do. It was a split-second decision that the officer had to make. He didn't see the dog walking up because the dog was hidden underneath the house. And as he got closer to the door to knock, the dog just came out and charged after him," says Chief Deputy Phil Conrad, who invited KATC to view that body camera video.

And while the department says they can't release the video, because it is evidence, we can tell you what we saw.

We saw that while an officer, approaching the door of the house, Max suddenly appears from underneath the house, without a leash, making it to the officers feet in a matter of seconds. That unnamed marshal fired two shots.

"Since my 25 years here, I'd say this is the third time this has happened," says Conrad.

Conrad says his officers are distraught over what happened, even offering to transport the dog to the vet and paying the vet bills.

"It was the only thing he could have done. If he could have gotten to his pepper spray he would have used it. But the video clearly shows quite differently there was no way for him to get to his pepper spray," says Conrad.

The Lafayette City Marshal's office says they are willing to bring the family in to view that body camera video, and to discuss what happened.

In the last week alone - November 20th through November 27th 2015 - in at least two separate incidents police officers opened fire inside of a school in order to kill a dog. These incidents occurred at Montevideo Middle School in Minnesota on 11-20 and Sacajawea Junior High School in Lewiston, Idaho on 11-23. During both incidents the animals involved caused no serious injury to students or staff and the entire school was forced into an emergency lockdown. At Sacajawea Junior High School, the dog who caused the crisis was apparently well known to a number of the students at the school - so well known that the dog's shooting resulted in a protest march in his honor just days after the shooting. Police claimed they shot the dog at Sacajawea Junior High only after the dog failed to respond to verbal commands.

The dog, Mister Chang, is deaf (he survived, but lost a leg).

A Richland County Sheriff's deputy shot and killed a family's dog Tuesday while searching the wrong house for a possibly suicidal woman.

The deputies were dispatched to the 3100 block of Lucas Perrysville Road for an attempted suicide Tuesday morning. They were told a woman had called the suicide hotline and said she was going to try to hang herself with an extension cord, but it broke.

When police arrived at the home, they said a dog could be heard barking in the residence. Police knocked on the door, but no one answered. When they asked dispatchers how they knew this was the correct address of where the call came from, they were told the call was traced to that address. Highway Patrol had dispatchers conduct a location search on where the phone number came from and the address on Lucas Perrysville Road showed up.

Police said they found an unlocked side door and entered the home. One officer involved said he had his Taser out in case the dog in the home was aggressive. Officers announced that they were in the building multiple times, but no one answered.

When one of the officers made it to the second floor of the residence, the dog was spotted. Police said the dog began to growl and seemed aggressive. Police asked dispatchers to contact the dog warden to be contacted, but were told he was not able to be reached at that time.

According to a police report, one of the officers said he attempted to secure the dog in a bedroom. He had his Taser ready in case the dog charged at him. The dog, last identified as 9-month-old Zeus, began to growl and show its teeth. When the officer walked toward a bathroom in the home, he said the dog charged him.

The dog was shot three times and eventually laid down on a child's bed where he died.

The home actually belongs to Tiffany McGregor, who has lived there with her husband, three kids and their dog Zeus for the last six months.

"We buried him on our land," McGregor said. "He was a good dog. Never vicious, just a big baby."

McGregor said the family got the 9-month-old Bull Mastiff to look after their young children when they moved out of the city.

"I feel like he was scared to death," she said tearfully. "He protected us but we couldn't be here to protect him."

Deputies said the woman who called the suicide hotline was never found. The McGregor's home was listed as one of her former addresses, but she does not currently live there and the family does not know her.

Six years ago, when Tom Newhart and his wife rescued a baby cat and named him Sugar, they never imagined that his life would end in a hail of gunfire. However, thanks to a North Catasauqua police officer, that’s exactly what happened.

Last Sunday, Sugar escaped from the Newhart’s home. Hours later, he’d be gunned down by police.

“It’s like one of your children, you raised them, bottle fed them,” said Newhart as he began tearing up.

When Sugar escaped, a neighbor five houses down found him and decided to call the police after not being able to detain the lost cat. When the cop showed up, he pulled out a shotgun and it was open season on lost cats.

“I found the cat sitting right here,” said the neighbor, Mike Lienert.

When the officer showed up, he told Lienert that it’s “not politically correct, but if it’s injured we will put it down,” — as if being ‘politically correct’ has anything to do with killing an innocent animal.

The officer then walked into Lienert’s backyard, blew the cat away, and then told Lienert that he’d have to clean up the mess. Lienert said aside from poking at the dead cat’s body, the officer never attempted to catch the cat.

Lienert said the cat did hiss at the officer, but instead of grabbing a pair of gloves and putting the cat in a cage, this public servant did some target practice.


After recovering Sugar’s body, the Newhart’s decided to have him x-rayed by the vet to see if the officer was justified in shooting him. However, they found that Sugar was fine, and the officer had no reason to kill him.

“No lacerations, no blood, other than neck wound on body. ” Newhart said.

Newhart said he called the Mayor and the chief of police, who told him that this is not policy and has never happened before.

“This guy doesn’t deserve the badge he wears, and should be fired immediately and held accountable,” said Newhart in a Facebook post.

In a statement, the borough said it’s in the process of gathering information and conducting a review and investigation of what took place. After this process is complete, the borough will be taking the necessary and appropriate steps, according to WFMZ.

According to a local animal shelter, the officer’s actions could be considered animal cruelty. According to the Free Thought Project, the officer’s actions are considered cowardly and sadistic.

The incident took place on December 6, 2015 after the cat had escaped its owners home, making its way five houses down where it settled under a grill. Realizing the cat was injured, Mike Lienert, the owner of the home, called police.

The responding officer, Pursell, retrieved his shotgun and ended the cat’s life without attempting to lure the cat or call animal control to have the cat assessed.

At first, North Catasauqua Police Department refused to provide the officer’s name, but the Justice for Sugar Facebook page kept growing, leading to calls to the police department to start an investigation.

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A Detroit man is demanding answers after claiming DPD killed his dog after raiding his home while looking for a suspect who was not there.

Police are telling a different story, saying they were serving a warrant at known drug house.

A couple on Detroit's east side says police didn't make their presence known before shooting their dog through the window of their house, then searching their house for a suspect that wasn't there.

"I don't understand why they just (came and shot) my dog in the head," said Durone Sanders.

Sanders and his pregnant fiancé say they just moved into this house on Woodlawn. They were inside Monday afternoon with their dogs, cleaning up the place when they heard gunfire.

"Facemasks and big rifles, entered the home," Sanders said. "And they're asking us, 'Who lives here?' Asking about my tattoos."

Sanders and his fiancé say they had no idea police were even on their property until officers shot their dog through the door, then forced their way in.

"They were already half-way inside the home in the back room where we were at," Sanders said. "We were frozen. That's when we knew it was police and they still didn't see anything."

The couple's 2-year-old pit bull mix was killed.

"My dogs are well trained," Sanders said. "They don't bite. They're not vicious dogs."

he bullet that hit him continued on into the living room wall.

Detroit police say officers raided the house looking for drugs, but the warrant they used tells a different story. It states they had reason to believe a suspect of an unspecified crime was there. A black male of a similar height and build to Durone Sanders. But he says he was unfairly harassed.

"They just told us to keep our mouths shut," Sanders said. "And that's what we did."

Police also claim to have found drugs at the home during the raid however, no arrests were made and no tickets for drugs were issued. Sanders says there were no drugs.

"Once they came to the conclusion they just left," he said.

FOX 2: "What else did they say?"

"Nothing," Sanders said.

Sanders was also ticketed for living in a vacant home something he plans to fight in court.