Police Kill “Cupid,” a Pit Bull

Huntington Beach cops climbed through a window to enter a mobile home and killed the dog when he ran into the room.

Casey Conger, sleeping late in his parents’ Huntington Beach mobile home, ignored the knocking.

But when he heard the sound of a window sliding open, the 24-year-old got up. Conger’s 100-pound pit-bull mix, Cupid, slid into the living room ahead of him.

Moments later, the black and white dog was dead, shot by Huntington Beach police officers who had entered the rose-covered double-wide without a warrant.

As Cupid turned the corner, making his way toward the noise, Conger said he heard what sounded like three gunshots.

He rushed to the scene where he was met with three police officers, his dog lying in a corner.

“It really didn’t make any sense to me,” Conger said.

Huntington Beach police were unavailable for comment at the time of publication.

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He added that he did not remember hearing a bark when Cupid went ahead of him into the living room. Had he known police were in the house, Conger said, he would have kept the dog in the bedroom.

“Before he got out into the living room the dog was shot and killed,” said Conger’s father, Robert Conger. “And the police officers had gone into the house.”

Police threw him on the ground and handcuffed him, Casey Conger said.

Conger was told that he was under arrest for sicking the dog on the cops, who later un-cuffed then re-cuffed him. Conger told NBCLA.com that he sat in the police car for about an hour and a half before being released.

Casey Conger raised the 3-year-old dog since it was a puppy and said Cupid was attached to him wherever he went.

Cupid would bark at strangers, but never physically attacked anyone, Conger added.

“I can handle what they do to me, but I love that dog,” Casey Conger said. “What do you expect a dog to do when you come in through the window?”

Police came in through a plexiglass window, which, Casey Conger said, would be easy to jimmy open but was definitely locked.

“My heater’s broken, so the night before I went through the house and made sure all the windows were closed and locked,” he said.

Neighbor Vince Ransom said he came home to find four police cars and several undercover officers at the scene. A month earlier, he said, officers had threatened to shoot Casey Conger's dog.

"A month earlier they came out to the house, and they said, 'Why don't we just shoot the dog?'" Ransom said. "Then yesterday, they came out and they shot the dog."

The Huntington Beach police department, which is investigating the incident, said in a press release that officers had responded to reports that transients were living in an abandoned trailer at the Ocean View Estates Mobile Home Park.

“Police officers knocked on the doors and windows and yelled inside, but received no response,” Lt. Russell Reinhard said in the press release. “They entered the trailer and were charged by a pit-bull terrier dog that weighed about 100 pounds. The police officers feared for their safety and one police officer fired his handgun, striking the dog and killing it.”

Reinhard repeatedly referred to the property as abandoned, and made a reference to Robert Conger as its former owner.

Along with the police was an investigator for the city of Huntington Beach, which in an unusual arrangement actually owns the mobile home park.

Huntington Beach Lt. John Cottriel, reached by telephone on Friday, said the police department was investigating the incident. He would not comment further.

Ransom, the family's longtime neighbor, said the home was well-kept, and that no one stayed there when Casey Conger was away.

Robert Conger said he and his wife have owned the mobile home in the park for twelve years. They rent the plot where it is located from the city. The family is behind on its $314 monthly rent to the city, but just by one month, Conger said.

The elder Congers moved to Sacramento three years ago, but their son continued to live there, Robert Conger said, with the full knowledge of neighbors and the local police.

Far from being abandoned, Robert Conger said, the property has a barbecue out front. Over Thanksgiving, he drove down from Sacramento, trimming roses and helping a neighbor put up Christmas lights.

His son, Conger said, has had some difficulties, including teen-age drug issues and an encounter with police last month. But that didn’t give officers the right to climb in through Casey’s window and shoot his dog.

“My son didn’t deserve this,” Conger said.

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