Cop hunting aggressive dog shoots family's Labrador

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A heartbroken North Carolina family is demanding answers after police shot and killed their family Labrador in what appears to be a catastrophic case of canine confusion.

A woman in the city of High Point called cops saying she had been trapped in her house with her children due to an aggressive German shepherd that refused to leave her yard Sunday morning, authorities said in a statement.

A responding officer tried to catch the aggressive dog but it ran away, the official account claims.

A neighbor said they knew where the dog’s owners lived further down the street and directed the officer to another house on the same block.

However, when the officer walked down the home’s driveway in search of the German shepherd, a “black dog (not the German Shepherd) came out from behind the home, barking aggressively, and charged at the officer,” the department alleges.

The officer, who has not been IDed by the department, backed up and shot the dog four times when it was around five to seven feet away.

Hank the Labrador retriever was gunned down in his owners’ driveway on Sunday morning. Adam Barnes/Facebook
Adam Barnes has been left distraught by the police shooting his dog dead. WGHP

No one was standing in the adjacent yard or the driveway when the shots were fired, police claim.

The family pet, a 65-pound black Labrador retriever named Hank, died at the scene, WFMY reported. 

Distraught homeowner Adam Barnes told WXII 12: “[The police] shot my black Lab for no reason. First off, I don’t have a German shepherd. 

“He was the best dog. I know my dog, and I know that he wouldn’t hurt a fly. I know he wouldn’t.”

Adam’s parents, Lee and Marykay Barnes, disputed the official narrative, saying they were home at the time of the shooting, and actually in the driveway when the officer fired.

Police were in the neighborhood following a report about an “aggressive” German shepherd, the same breed pictured here in a sitting position WFMY

“He shot the wrong dog. That dog was happy one second and dead the next,” Lee lamented, saying that Hank was just doing “what any dog would have done” when someone came near.

“Pow pow, pow pow! Just like that,” he recalled of the incident.

“Before I could get down here, the dog was dead. It died that quick. I told the guy, ‘What are you doing? You just killed my son’s pet.’ I said, ‘He’s going to be devastated.'”

Hank was killed while running at the officer, police said. Adam Barnes/Facebook

“[Hank] was in his own yard, so he had no reason to shoot him,” Marykay added.

Adam described how distraught he was when he realized Hank had been killed.

“I dropped to my knees, and I just didn’t know what to do. I was broken at that point. I couldn’t bring him back,” he told WXII 12.

Lee and Marykay Barnes say they were in the driveway when the officer fired. WGHP

“I lost a dog last year, so I knew they were going to come pick him up, and he was going to get cremated and be gone forever. I wanted to love on him, even though he wasn’t really there. I just hugged him, loved him, and said goodbye because I never got to.”

The High Point Police Department is conducting an internal investigation into the shooting, it confirmed in a statement.

The officer involved in Hank’s death is not on administrative leave.

The department did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for a comment on the incident.

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