A Rock Island County woman is raising questions after a dog was shot outside her home Monday morning.
Shelby Gosa said her family called the Rock Island County Sheriff's Department around 6:30 a.m. Monday after seeing two, unknown Rottweiler dogs trying to get into her next-door neighbor's rabbit hutch.
Gosa said she and her father led the deputy to the pair of dogs. One of the dogs had a collar, the other did not. She said she pet both of them, and neither one was growling while she was outside.
"The officer managed to get the dog with the collar into his car pretty easily, but the other one was giving him some trouble. It was pacing around, it kept walking back to our neighbor's rabbit hutch; it wouldn't get in the car," said Gosa.
Still, Gosa said she assumed everything would be fine, and she and her father went back inside the house.
"A couple minutes later, we heard a gunshot," said Gosa. "When I came back outside and I saw the blood in the dog's mouth, I immediately assumed it had bit the officer, but he told me that it didn't, and I was really, really confused as to why this officer would think that shooting a dog is a good idea."
We don't know exactly what happened while Gosa was inside the house. Tuesday afternoon, News Eight requested an incident report from the Sheriff's Department. It is expected back sometime this week.
Rock Island County Sheriff Jeff Boyd was out of town Tuesday, but he told News Eight that he believes the deputy acted within policy and that the dog was acting viciously at the time.
Boyd said any such incident, though, raises questions, and it will be looked into further.
Gosa hopes that follow-up will bring her more answers.
"It was very heartbreaking, because we have a dog, and I can't imagine her being shot and losing her, she's part of our family," said Gosa.
Gosa said she plans to file an official complaint with the Sheriff's Department.