A Fall River family is gearing up to take legal action against the city after their dog lost a leg from a police shooting that occurred when an officer entered the wrong apartment nearly two years ago. According to Boston.com, the incident involved former Fall River police officer Connor Levesque, who opened the door to an apartment on South Main Street without knocking and shot an 11-month-old pit bull named Honey with his .40-caliber Smith & Wesson.
The bullet's damage necessitated the amputation of Honey's left front leg by emergency veterinarians. The Herald News reports that despite Levesque's claim of encountering the dog in a common area and it acting aggressively towards him, security footage showed a different sequence of events with the dog running out onto the street after being shot. Lawyer Melissa Hendrie, representing the owners, asserted that the case is not just simply about the dog being shot, it is also focused on how the city mishandled the owners' settlement attempts.
Levesque argued that he was injured during the encounter, although he was not bitten and surveillance video did not back up his account of limping prior to another officer escorting him to the hospital. The city has levied the family with a $500 fee for transporting the injured pet and the costs of Honey's veterinary care summed up to nearly $6,000, a burden shouldered by Richardson DeSilva and Linoshka Acevedo, Honey's owners, as they had to rely on credit cards to cover the expenses.
Efforts by the family to resolve the issue with the city have been met with an offer of $10,000 in compensation, which Hendrie insists falls well below what would be considered fair and reasonable. "We weren't looking for any payday. That's not the case at all. These are just regular people who work, have never been involved with the police at all," Hendrie conveyed to The Herald News. "We were just really hopeful [the city] would see the case the way we did and make an offer that was fair and reasonable."
Honey's case has attracted media scrutiny since the shooting. Meanwhile, Levesque has moved on and is currently serving as an officer in Swansea, as confirmed by Fall River Police Department spokesperson Detective Sgt. Moses Pereira when he spoke with Boston.com. The pending lawsuit puts the spotlight back on the city as it contends with another police-related legal challenge.
