Kenneth Cannon

Off duty Police Officer shot a neighbors dog, without having legal jurisdiction

Gainesville, GA

April 18, 2000

Police Officer Kenneth Cannon, age 31, was acquitted of killing a neighbors dog on September 23, 2000.

The case:

Case # 00-SR-3973-D The State of Georgia vs. Kenneth L. Cannon, The Charge: Cruelty to a dog.

Cannon was charged with a misdemeanor offense of cruelty to a dog in Hall County, Georgia for shooting a neighbors dog on April 18, 2000. Killing the dog in violation of O.C.G.A. Section 4-8-5. Cannon was further charged with a 2nd misdemeanor offense of discharging of a gun within 50 yards of a roadway without legal justification in violation of O.C.G.A. 16-11-103.

Cannon shot a neighbors dog named Bud, 10 days after Bud mauled Cannons daughter. Canon took the law into his own hands instead of following proper procedure and doing so out of his jurisdiction as a police officer.

Bud about a year old, was a 65-pound German Shepard husky mix owned by Linda Carpenter, a neighbor of the Cannons. Carpenter testified that Bud was not normally dangerous. She had asked the children in the area to please not play with Bud, because he was big and liked to jump on people. Bud was shot with an AR-15 assault rifle while chained to a tree in his owner's backyard.

Amber Cannon, age 9 was playing badminton near the dog on April 7th. When she went to retrieve the ball, the dog grabbed her by the head, which required 18 stitches. To the dog, he thought she was playing with him. The dog had never shown any aggressive behavior towards anyone prior to this incident and the dog had received all his proper/age appropriate vaccinations.

Animal Control came out within 3 days of the attack and quarantined the dog for 10 days. The dog was sent home to his owner, who was preparing to euthanized the dog on April 19th after they felt it was not a threat to the community. Cannon a former Desert Storm Marine, loaded a military style assault rifle and shot the dog twice, once in the heart and then in the rear, with the intention of killing him. Cannon was off duty at the time and he was not a police officer in that community. Cannon claimed the dog was still a threat to his family even though his family was in Mississippi at the time of the shooting. Cannon did not attempt to contact authorities immediately before or after the shooting.

Hall County Animal Control Director, Rick Phillips confirmed in a taped telephone conversation that the dog was vaccinated.

A 6-person jury (4 women, 2 men) was given the task of deciding whether Cannon, was justified when he shot the dog. Cannon claims that the dog was a danger to the public and he had a duty as a police officer and a father to kill the animal when it was returned to its owner. The state maintained that Cannon took the law into his own hands instead of pursuing nonviolent, legal solutions.

The prosecutor Larry Baldwin, II admitted to the jurors that he had struggled with his closing arguments. Amber Cannon, sat in the gallery as Baldwin, acknowledged that the dog had brutalized the girl. "Nobody denies that Amber has suffered a lot", but it does not excuse her father from breaking the law".

Dan Summer, Cannon's attorney, told jurors that it was the state that was to blame in this case. The animal control department and the dog's owner should be on trial instead of his client. "He didn't take the law into his own hands, on that day, he was the law", Summer stated.

The prosecutor rejected that argument, and suggested, that Cannon acted not out of civic mindedness, but out of the arrogance of someone carrying a badge. He's a police officer, and he figures what's the owner going to do if he kills the dog?" He further stated that Cannon was angry with the county's animal control unit because they followed legal procedure for dealing with a dog attack instead of immediately destroying the dog. They followed the law - so Cannon broke it, stated Baldwin. Further he cautioned jurors not to let their sympathy for Amber distort the evidence. "It is not your duty to twist the facts to come up with an excuse".

In Summer's closing arguments, he tugged on the juror’s emotions, telling them to look Amber Cannon in the eyes and they left the court.

It took the jury less than 3 hours to conclude that Cannon committed no crime when he killed the dog that mauled his daughter. Linda Carpenter, very disappointed in the verdict, stated, "I’m glad I don't live in the city limits of Gainesville, because I would not want Cannon patrolling my streets".

After the verdict the defense attorney Summer admitted that the prosecutor was right. His client did commit a crime, but the jury saw a higher truth than the law. "Technically, Cannon broke the law. In this case, the jury went for the moral over the legal".

Cannon now faces an internal affairs investigation by the Gainesville Police Department. At the time of the shooting Cannon was suspended with pay pending his trial.

References:

Court TV Online

The Atlanta Journal Constitution

WXIA TV Atlanta