L.A. deputies shot dog, let him bleed to death, lawsuit alleges

Sheriff’s Department deputies in Pico Rivera allegedly threw a chair at a dog, fired Tasers at his face, shot the animal twice with a gun and let him bleed to death, according to a lawsuit filed in Superior Court.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday at the Norwalk courthouse, alleges that the 5-year-old pit bull named Chico Blue was “senselessly tortured and killed” by deputies who responded to the Pico Rivera neighborhood after a shooting on Dec 6.

Members of the group Expand Animal Rights Now said the incident is part of a larger pattern of law enforcement violence against dogs, including the recent killing of a Rottweiler by police in Hawthorne. That shooting, captured on video and posted on YouTube, has sparked outrage and prompted investigations of the officers’ actions.

In the Pico Rivera incident, the deputies’ actions were “so egregious,” said attorney Jill Ryther, who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Chico Blue’s owner.

“This is definitely one of the worst [cases] I’ve seen,” Ryther told The Times. She said the incident was observed by witnesses.

Steve Whitmore, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman, said Thursday that deputies did nothing wrong.

“We look forward to telling the whole story,” Whitmore said. “As we move forward and people see actually what occurred, we will be vindicated.”

According to the lawsuit, deputies at the scene detained the dog’s owner, Arturo Gonzalez, who was at his home but was not connected to the shooting.

The home was enclosed by a fence and the dog was in the backyard, the lawsuit says. Gonzalez repeatedly pleaded with deputies to let him put his dog away but was ignored.

Gonzalez then saw a deputy “pick up a lounge chair and throw it over a fence at Chico Blue for no apparent reason,” according to the lawsuit.

Another deputy opened the gate, walked into the backyard and “callously used his Taser on Chico Blue’s face twice,” the lawsuit alleges. Gonzalez heard his dog “yelp and cry in pain.”

Chico Blue staggered into the frontyard in a daze and apparently confused. At that point, a deputy standing on the sidewalk allegedly drew his gun and shot the dog twice.

The wounded dog ran through a gate left open by a deputy and jumped into a passenger’s seat of a patrol vehicle, which had the door open, according to the suit.

The document alleges that a deputy slammed the door shut and that Chico Blue bled to death inside. The lawsuit is seeking unspecified financial damages for Gonzalez for emotional distress, pain and suffering and loss of his dog.

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Twitter: @LAJourno

robert.lopez@latimes.com