Official: Deputy fired after shooting dog

A Faulkner County sheriff’s deputy has been fired after he shot a small dog Friday evening in a resident’s yard, a sheriff’s office spokesman said Saturday. Video of the encounter, posted on the resident’s Facebook page, had been reposted about 2,600 times as of 5 p.m. Saturday. A statement about the shooting on the Faulkner County sheriff’s office social media site received roughly 2,300 comments by late Saturday afternoon. The shooting occurred while Deputy Keenan Wallace was answering a service call Friday evening in Shiloh Estates near Conway, sheriff’s office spokesman Deputy Erinn Stone said. The sheriff’s office provided few details and wouldn’t disclose the reason why a deputy was called. It said in a statement the dog was aggressive. At one point Saturday, the Facebook page for the sheriff’s office went down. Doug Canady said he moved into Shiloh Estates three years ago and started feeding a “skinny little malnutritioned dog” known as Reese’s. Friday’s incident began around 4:30 p.m., Canady said, when he saw a woman standing in the road in front of his home pointing a gun at Reese’s and in the direction of his home. Canady said he told the woman to put the gun away and after she did so she said she was going to call authorities. Canady said he went to a gas station and, when he returned, a deputy’s vehicle was in the street near his home. The deputy got out of his vehicle and approached Canady’s home, Canady said. That’s when Canady began filming. In the video, which Canady verified for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, two small dogs can be seen running around near the deputy’s feet, barking and wagging their tails. With the camera pointed down, the deputy can be heard asking Canady if he wants to step to the road to speak with him. Canady says no, and shortly after that a shot rings out. At that point the camera focuses on the deputy and shows Reese’s writhing on the ground, yelping in pain. “Are you f*****g kidding me?” Canady shouts. “You’re f*****g kidding me.” “I told you,” the deputy responds. Later Saturday, Canady said he did not know how to react or understand why the deputy had fired his weapon in a residential area. “Once he fired that weapon, I lost all mental faculties,” he said. “My heart broke. I thought he just killed this dog.” Video that Canady recorded of the encounter shows a deputy holding something in his hand as he walks toward Canady. “He scared me,” Canady said. “He freaked me out. I’m thinking I’m about to go to the hospital. He just shot a little bitty dog. What is he going to do to me?”