If It Barks, Shoot It: Police Kill Dogs in Raid on Suburban Maryland Home

The FBI is reviewing a raid by a SWAT team on the suburban Maryland home of Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo. Mr. Calvo's two dogs were shot and killed during the raid.

The Washington Post reported on August 8, 2008 ("FBI to review raid that killed mayor's dogs") that "The Prince George's Sheriff's Office SWAT team and county narcotics officers raided the home after Calvo brought in a 32-pound marijuana-filled package addressed to his wife. They tied up Tomsic's mother and Calvo, and they interrogated the mayor for hours. On Wednesday, police announced they had arrested a package deliveryman and another man in connection with a scheme to smuggle marijuana by intercepting packages addressed to unsuspecting recipients. Police Chief Melvin C. High said that Calvo and his wife were probably innocent victims of the conspiracy but that the case remained under investigation. He and Sheriff Michael Jackson defended the actions of deputies and officers who carried out the raid."

According to the Post, the FBI "has begun 'reviewing the events that occurred at Mr. Calvo's residence,' said Richard J. Wolf, spokesman for the FBI in Baltimore, which has jurisdiction over federal civil rights investigations in Maryland. The FBI announcement came in response to a call yesterday by Calvo and his wife, Trinity Tomsic, for such a probe. Calvo and Tomsic suggested a systemic problem might exist in county law enforcement. 'We have witnessed a frightening law enforcement culture in which the law is disregarded, the rights of innocent occupants are ignored and the rights of innocent animals mean nothing,' Calvo said, surrounded by county elected leaders and friends on the front lawn of his house. 'A shadow was cast over our good names. We were harmed by the very people who took an oath to protect us.' June White Dillard, president of the NAACP's local chapter, also called for a thorough investigation and said Calvo experienced police action familiar to many young black men in the county."

The Post noted that "An attorney came forward yesterday to allege a possible pattern of animal abuse by the sheriff's department. Michael Winkleman said he is representing another family whose dog was shot by sheriff's deputies in November, along with a woman who is suing the department for searching her home without a warrant and threatening to shoot her dog. In the first case, Winkleman said, sheriff's deputies arrived at the Accokeek home of Frank and Pamela Myers with a warrant for another house on their street. After the couple informed the deputies of their error, they continued to question the couple and looked around their home. As they spoke, the couple's 5-year-old German boxer began barking in a yard, out of sight. Soon after, according to Winkleman, the couple heard gunshots, and they found the dog shot to death. He said the family is preparing to file suit. In another case, Upper Marlboro resident Amber James has filed a $4 million lawsuit accusing sheriff's deputies of searching her home without a warrant in May 2007 while looking for her sister, who lived in Capitol Heights. According to the suit, deputies falsely claimed to have a warrant and searched every room of the home. When they did not find the sister, the suit alleges, they threatened to return the next day and search again, saying that if they did, James's dog would be dead. Some lawyers and leading law enforcement groups said deputies should have known to do everything possible to avoid killing Calvo's dogs. Courts across the country in recent years have ruled that it is almost always unacceptable for police to kill pets in the course of searching a home. Cases in three federal circuits have found that killing pets amounts to unreasonable seizure."