A pet was shot and killed Saturday by an off-duty Clay County Sheriff’s Office lieutenant in a local park.
Action News Jax Investigates: Why could he have a gun at a park where weapons are banned?
Parker, the 1-year-old boxer mix, never met a big stick he didn’t like.
“Every time a big old stick would fall in the backyard, that was his favorite day ever,” said his owner, Miranda Abbas.
Abbas said she quickly fell in love with her 40-pound puppy.
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“You don’t even realize it until you have a pup and it kind of becomes your whole life,” Abbas said.
But Saturday, she came home from out of the country to the news that Parker was gone.
The lieutenant told CCSO that Parker was charging him and his dog so he shot the dog with his personal, concealed gun.
The dog sitter said she let Parker off the leash toward the back of Ronnie Van Zant Park so he could run around.
“To think that the only answer to that was to shoot him is ridiculous,” Abbas said.
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Fearing for his safety, the CCSO the lieutenant -- who we’re not naming because he wasn’t charged with a crime -- believed he was justified to shoot the dog.
But when Action News Jax took a closer look at the county’s park rules, we found this line: "No weapons are permitted."
We asked the Sheriff’s Office about that, and learned a 2011 Florida statute made it illegal for counties to ban carrying concealed weapons.
Guns are specifically excluded from a list of weapons.
Deputies don’t plan to investigate further, so Abbas says she’s considering legal action.
“That’s definitely not going to be the end of it for me,” Abbas said. “And we’re not stopping here. I’m not going to let that be the end of it.”
Action News Jax reached out to the lieutenant involved and never heard back.
CCSO said this is his first shooting, and he has no previous Internal Affairs complaints.
Cox Media Group
