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Police say killing dog was right action

A New Iberia man is suing the city, a city police officer, the city police department and an animal control officer for shooting and killing Agnes, his beloved Rottweiller.

Benjamin Hebert hired Lafayette attorney Clay Burgess to file the lawsuit for damages, according to Hebert's mother, attorney Glenda Huddleston.

The suit was filed Thursday.

On the afternoon of July 8, Huddleston said Hebert's 80-pound, year-and-a-half old dog got loose from his house on Allen Street. Neighbors then called police because Agnes had someone pinned against a wall, Huddleston said, but no one was bitten.

When Officer Corey Broussard arrived, he and Animal Control Officer Harry Hebert needlessly shot the dog dead, Huddleston said, and bullets were flying around the neighborhood.

"They shot so close to the house that a bullet ricocheted and broke the glass on the side door," said Huddleston. "Were there no other means?"

Huddleston said some of her neighbors were shocked when the dog was shot.

"They thought they would pick up the dog and then call us," she said.

Benjamin Hebert was heart-broken after Agnes died, Huddleston said, and was further stung when Broussard gave her son a ticket for "dog running at large." She said the next day city prosecutor Anne Stevens dismissed the charge "with apologies."

Huddleston said she has put her house up for sale because "I'd like to live in a calmer place." Her son has moved to Lafayette.

But NIPD spokesman Sgt. Chad Hazelwood said killing the dog was the right thing to do.

"It's not the first time we've responded to that dog," Hazelwood said. "In March we had a caller state the dog chased and attacked him. He said the dog tried to bite him."

Huddleston said Agnes was a gentle pet and good with kids.

"She never bit anyone and has never been reported for biting anyone," she said. "She has never been violent toward anyone. She was just a big baby."

Hazelwood said his department had more than 900 dog-related calls last year, and that only twice in the last two years has an officer killed a dog: on July 8 and March 31, when a pet pit bull was shot by an NIPD officer in the 900 block of Main Street.

After the July 8 shooting, Hazelwood refused to release the initial incident report. He said Friday he was withholding the report on instructions from Police Chief Robert Feller.

Hazelwood did say the dog "charged and lunged toward the animal control officer, and then charged a police officer who fired his revolver three times, eventually killing the dog."

Hazelwood said several neighbors who were witnesses to the shooting said Agnes had threatened them in the past.

The suit claims Broussard was called about the dog by Harry Hebert, the animal control officer, and the two "failed to properly detain said animal and murdered said animal by firing three shots into the front chest area …"

The suit says Benjamin Hebert suffered pain and suffering, mental anguish and anxiety, physical and mental impairment, loss of companionship, loss of love … of man's best friend, grief, the pain and suffering of Agnes and other damages."

The suit claims Broussard didn't "properly neutralize" Agnes and instead "fatally destroyed it," that he used a firearm "recklessly and as an object of intimidation, mirth and merriment."

The suit was brought against Broussard, Hebert, Feller and the City of New Iberia. The suit states Hebert is seeking "reasonable" damages.

Feller said Friday afternoon that he had not seen the suit yet, so he couldn't talk about it.

"And I wouldn't comment until I talk to the mayor anyway," he said.

Mayor Ruth Fontenot said Saturday that she had not yet received the lawsuit.