'I can't stop crying' — Windsor woman relives chaotic moment police killed her dog
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There are bullet holes in Michele Croft’s floor and wall after police shot her dog four times in crowded quarters.
Croft said a bullet bounced around the room after one of many officers who had crowded into her small second-floor apartment killed the dog during a struggle with her nephew.
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Despite what Windsor police stated in a media release, Croft said the officer did not try less-lethal tactics prior to going for his gun.
“Out of nowhere, the cop pulled out his gun and shot him four times,” Croft told the Star. “Four bullets ripped into him.”
“I’m so traumatized from this. I can’t stop crying. I cannot believe this happened in Windsor, Ontario.”
Windsor police did not respond Friday to a request for comment about Croft’s version of the story.
But police said earlier in a media release that shortly after 2 p.m. on Thursday, officers responded to a call about a person in crisis at an apartment in the 2800 block of Tecumseh Road West.
Croft said that person is her nephew, who has been staying with her since about Christmas, after his mom died. The dog, a roughly 60-pound pitbull named Zeus, was his.
But it quickly became hers, too.
“I got very close to the dog,” Croft said the day after the shooting. “Even today, every time I put my key in the door now, I’m waiting for him to come running up to the door, because he would jump on me.”
Police said officers tried to apprehend the 45-year-old man, who was experiencing “a mental health crisis.”
The man resisted. Police said he physically assaulted one officer and threatened to kill another.
During the struggle, police said he ordered his pitbull to bite. The dog then attacked the officers, who shot it after non-lethal efforts were ineffective, according to police.
They used a conducted energy weapon, commonly known as a Taser, to gain control of the man.
Police apprehended him under the Mental Health Act. He was also charged with assaulting a police officer, uttering threats to cause death, and failure to comply with a release order.
Croft said Friday her nephew was under watch in the hospital.
But she has a different account of what happened with Zeus.
Two officers initially showed up, Croft said. When her nephew wouldn’t go with them, they called for backup.
“All of a sudden there was like 18 of them,” said Croft.
Shortly after that, things escalated.
“When they all started coming in, two by two, my nephew kept saying get the (expletive) out of my house,” said Croft. “And they were like, ‘No, you’re coming with us. It’s a welfare call and we have to take you to the hospital.’”
He still refused to leave. Croft said officers huddled on the other side of the room discussing what to do.
“I said, ‘What are you guys planning, what are you going to do?’” said Croft. “And it happened.”
She said several officers lunged at him.
“They pulled him down to the ground.”
He put up a fight. Croft said the situation quickly turned chaotic.
“There were probably nine of them that it took to get him down,” said Croft.
The security latch for her apartment door was busted during the melee. The closet door was caved in.
“That’s when the dog was just barking and jumping,” she said. “That’s all he was doing. He was jumping on me.”
Her nephew continued fighting with officers on the ground. Croft said one officer who had been on top of him rose to his feet and pulled out his gun.
She said the officer shot Zeus once, and the dog slumped onto his side. After the wounded dog was down, Croft said she heard “bang, bang, bang.”
“I was hysterical. I was screaming, ‘Why couldn’t you Taser him or billy club him?’ Something just to push him away. All they needed to do was just push him away.”
Making the harrowing experience even scarier, Croft said she was so close to the firearm that gunshot residue sprayed her arms.
“We could have gotten shot ourselves,” she said. “I was within two feet.”
She said at least one bullet ricocheted around her tiny living room, leaving a hole in the floor where the dog died and one in the wall across the room, before landing on the couch in another corner.
Croft said there was a “bent bullet” sitting on her sofa after the shooting, but police took it.
A day after the incident, there was what appeared to be a bullet hole in the hardwood floor of her living room and one in the cement wall.
“He had absolutely no reason to shoot the dog,” said Croft. “The dog did not nip at anyone. He did not bite anyone. I was standing with him, two feet from him, trying to coax him into the bedroom.
“But there was too much going on.”
