CEDARTOWN, Ga. — Body camera video released on Friday shows the moment a west Georgia officer shot and killed a family’s pet donkey.
Heehaw, a 1-year-old miniature donkey, was shot by a Cedartown officer in August. Heehaw died from the injuries he sustained.
Channel 2’s Berndt Petersen obtained a copy of the body camera video that shows the moment Heehaw was shot.
“Firearm discharged at a donkey. It was trying to attack us on a pasture,” Officer Trenton Garner can be heard saying in the video.
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Heehaw’s owner, Hannah Israel, fought to have the body camera video released because she says her donkey would not and did not hurt anyone.
“Heehaw thought people were his family, and Heehaw was family,” she said.
According to the report written by Officer Trenton Garner, who has been placed on leave during the investigation, officers were in an open field searching for a missing 12-year-old girl.
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Garner wrote that he and K-9 units from multiple agencies were searching on a hill when horses in the pasture were “spooked” near the fence line and ran away from them.
The officer stated that a donkey began to charge at him and a K-9 handler from one of the other departments. The handler took out his Taser and used it on him.
When the Taser did not affect the donkey, Garner reported that he pulled out his service weapon and shot the donkey.
The Georgia Department of Agriculture says it is taking the investigation seriously.
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