Article from Reason by Billy Binion.

Recently released body camera footage from the police department in Arlington, Texas, shows an officer fatally shooting a woman lying behind a shopping plaza after taking aim at her medium-sized, unrestrained dog.

The officer had been dispatched to perform a routine welfare check on the woman, Maggie Brooks, who was reportedly homeless and a regular at the shopping center in question. Footage shows the cop walking toward Brooks and asking her, “Are you OK?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Brooks replies. The dog then trots toward the officer. Although the video makes it clear that the animal presented no threat, he nonetheless fires three shots toward the dog as Brooks lies mere feet away.

At a news conference, Police Chief Will Johnson said the 30-year-old Brooks suffered a fatal wound in the “upper torso.” The dog, weighing 40 pounds, was also struck and is currently in quarantine.

Read the entire article at Reason.

Image Credit: IDS.photos from Tiverton, UK [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)]