NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Tennessee Highway Patrol dispatchers transmitted information that was speculative, escalating a Jan. 1 stop that ended with the shooting of a dog whose family was mistakenly suspected of committing a felony, state records show.
The dispatch alerting troopers to watch for a North Carolina carrying James Smoak and his family was headlined “recent robbery,” but the call from a motorist that sparked the THP’s interest never mentioned a crime other than speeding.
Driver Veronica Louwien told THP dispatcher Shannon Pickard she was passed by on Interstate 40 by a dark green station wagon traveling “about 110 miles an hour” and that money was “flying all over the interstate,” according to the call transcript obtained by The Tennessean, a Nashville newspaper.
Louwien never said whether the money was coming from inside the vehicle. Authorities later learned the money, about $445, came from a wallet that Smoak accidentally left on top of his car while pumping gas during a return trip to Saluda, N.C., from a Nashville vacation.
Cookeville police officer Eric Hall was providing assistance to troopers who had pulled over the Smoaks when he shot and killed Patton, a 55-pound mixed breed pit bull, after the animal bounded out of the car and ran toward him. Hall said he thought the dog, which appears to be wagging his tail on a video of the shooting, was about to attack.
The Smoak family held a candlelight vigil for their pet on Monday. They say they’re planning to file a lawsuit and are seeking donations to pay for their legal fees.
Cookeville dispatchers Brian Brock and Timothy McHood told authorities now investigating the shooting that they warned Trooper David Bush to use caution in the stop because of repeated references to “large amounts” of cash thrown out of the car window and the “recent robbery” headline issued by Nashville’s THP.
Bush told the internal investigation that dispatch advised him to execute a felony stop, which requires a much higher level of caution and force than a routine traffic stop. Pickard’s statement disputed that version, saying the dispatcher only wanted to stop the car to find out why the money was flying from it.
“I don’t know of anywhere where I would have got the point across that there needed to be a felony takedown,” Pickard said in a statement to investigators. Police records obtained by The Knoxville News-Sentinel show that Hall, who’s now on administrative duty, has shot dogs twice before.
The first shooting in 1998 was when Hall responded to a call of a dog trying to attack a neighbor and the other in 2001 was authorized by a supervisor, the records show.