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Tennessee woman Emma Hollingsworth said she used her cellphone to film a U.S. Marshal kicking her dog as authorities arrested her boyfriend on Feb. 4.
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This video and another taken outside her apartment show the dog getting too close to the agent and the agent kicking the dog.
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The U.S. Marshals Service said the incident “was a last resort effort by law enforcement officers to control the environment and mitigate a dangerous situation.”
A Tennessee woman claims her dog was mauled by U.S. Marshals agents.
Emma Hollingsworth claims the incident involving her 9-month-old schnauzer Yoshi occurred on Wednesday, February 4, when U.S. Marshals arrested her boyfriend, Jaquize Henderson, local outlets Fox13 Memphis and WMC-TV reported.
According to media reports, Henderson had an arrest warrant for a commercial burglary in northern Mississippi.
Hollingsworth captured video of Henderson’s arrest on his cell phone and on a nearby camera outside his Memphis apartment. The video, obtained by WMC-TV, shows one of eight U.S. Marshals agents who arrived on the scene kicking Yoshi away as he tried to detain Henderson.
“My dog got out. He asked, ‘What happened?’ So the U.S. Marshal kicked him hard for no reason,” Hollingsworth recalled to Fox13 Memphis.
Video captured by a camera outside the apartment shows Yoshi barking loudly at a K-9 tethered next to a U.S. Marshals agent. Another agent can be seen on the video trying to chase the dog away, while the dog continues to bark. Just then, a third agent kicked the dog.
Hollingsworth told WMC-TV she was “very angry” and “very angry” about what happened in the video.
“You shouldn’t do this to my dog,” she told the outlet. “[Yoshi] Didn’t do anything – why did you kick him so hard? “
She told FOX 13 Memphis that she took her dog to the veterinarian, who told her the animal had broken ribs and needed medication.
PEOPLE has reached out to the U.S. Marshals Service in West Tennessee for comment on the incident.
The U.S. Marshals Service said in a statement to Fox13 Memphis and WMC-TV that during Henderson’s arrest, “a dog in one of the apartments escaped and made multiple attempts to attack the working K9.” The dog’s owner was told to restrain the animal, but the owner “failed to do so.”
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The agency also acknowledged a video circulating on social media showing the incident, saying: “While it is regrettable that this incident occurred, the deputy’s actions were not motivated by malicious intent. This was a last resort by law enforcement officers to control the environment and mitigate a dangerous situation.”
“Uncontrolled, aggressive animals can obstruct official business and threaten safety,” the U.S. Marshals Service concluded in a statement, reminding dog owners to keep their pets on a leash at all times.
Read the original article on People
