An Arkansas lady has accused a Columbia County Sheriff’s Division deputy of taking pictures her whereas attempting to shoot her Pomeranian canine after she known as 911 for assist.
Tina Hight, who has filed a lawsuit in opposition to Deputy Brian Williams and retired Columbia County Sheriff Mike Loe, just lately informed native ABC affiliate KATV that Williams shot her in August 2022 and the bullet continues to be lodged in her shin.
Hight informed the outlet that she’s skilled nervousness and needed to go to frequent physician’s appointments after the incident.
The swimsuit says the deputy was “in no hazard in any respect from the animal” and had “no foundation to discharge his weapon.”
In bodycam footage of the incident obtained by KATV, Williams is heard shouting on the canine on Hight’s porch as he stands a brief distance away.
“Get again, get your canine, I’ll kill this ************. Get your godd**n canine,” he says, in keeping with KATV.
Williams is heard firing a warning shot earlier than yelling, “You higher get again. I’ll kill this.” He then fires a shot, showing to intention on the canine.
“You simply shot me,” Hight, who’s subsequent to a different deputy, screams as she falls on her porch.
“I shot who?” the deputy requested.
Williams denies taking pictures Hight after one other lady on the scene says, “You shot my aunt.”
“I didn’t shoot her,” he replies.
Hight and Williams alternate phrases as they argue over the incident, which she later described as “very scary” to KATV.
“I’ve by no means been shot earlier than…I didn’t know…I knew I used to be hit, I didn’t know the way dangerous, I didn’t perceive,” Hight informed the outlet.
The deputy later within the video claims one among Hight’s canine scratched her.
Hight informed KATV that she’s “nervous to ever name the police once more,” including, “I anticipated him to return for my safety and as a substitute I used to be the sufferer.”
Hight’s lawyer, Tre Kitchens, mentioned it’s “by the grace of God” that she wasn’t killed within the incident, per KATV.
“He missed, he didn’t hit the canine, and as a substitute shot my consumer…along with his fellow deputy standing about eight inches from my consumer,” mentioned Kitchens. “We’re additionally alleging that the sheriff of Columbia County clearly didn’t prepare him, didn’t educate him, and if that type of conduct is acceptable in Columbia County there’s an even bigger challenge with that division normally.”
Sheriff Leroy Martin responded to KATV’s reporting in a Facebook post on Thursday, clarifying that he was not the sheriff on the time and that the deputy was cleared of wrongdoing after an investigation by the Arkansas State Police.
“The proof will come out precisely; and the video will probably be in it’s [sic] entirety and forth coming [sic],” he wrote. “The video will present that the Deputy was responding to a know[n] residence because the canine aggressively got here at him.”
“The Deputy was cleared by The Arkansas State Police and The Prosecutor’s Workplace of any wrongdoing on this incident,” Martin added. “This Incident was dealt with by the earlier Sheriff, and I too WILL stand with Our Deputy on this matter.”
The Columbia County Sheriff’s Division didn’t instantly reply to JS’s request for remark.
