Family remembers dog shot dead on Christmas Eve by Raleigh officer: ‘He was really sweet’

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) — Christmas will now carry a lot of emotional weight for the Negrete family who is mourning the loss of a beloved husky that a Raleigh police officer fatally shot on Christmas Eve.

“He was such a playful dog. He was really sweet,” Lisbeth Negrete said.

According to police, the officer was responding to a report of a stolen vehicle in the neighborhood in the 3900 block of Alder Grove Lane in southeast Raleigh when they said an aggressive dog charged at an officer.

The officer attempted to back away, but the dog continued to advance, and the officer fired his service weapon, striking and killing the dog.

“This is not the result we wanted, especially during the holiday season,” a Raleigh Police spokesperson told ABC11.

According to the security camera video, you can see the patrol car’s arrival before it jumps to the scene when the officer and the dog are on the ground, and you can hear two gunshots in the video.

ALSO SEE: 2 men arrested for jumping from crane in downtown Raleigh

The family said there are gaps in the video due to a technical glitch, but they claim their dog of six years has never hurt anyone in the neighborhood and would be outside often, unleashed, and trained to stay on their property.

“He loves it outside … of course, we usually are out here, supervising him,” Negrete said. “That day, my dad just went inside to use the bathroom and came back out and we saw that.”

Eyewitness News reached out to Raleigh Police on Thursday after seeing the video and they said they have no new details to release at this time.

“He was being friendly,” Negrete said. “Every dog would run up to a person to say, hey, or anything, especially if they’re playful, which I see (the officer’s) point of view, but what I don’t understand … they’re trained to deal with people. They should be trained to deal with dogs.”

The Internal Affairs Unit is conducting an investigation as is protocol when an officer discharges their weapon.