An LAPD officer shot and killed a family's dog during a welfare check — and bodycam footage shows the cop had his gun drawn before the animal ever left the apartment, raising the question of whether the decision to use deadly force was made before any attempt to assess the situation. For ordinary Americans, this is the stakes: government agents can show up at your door, kill your property, and the system will investigate itself on its own timeline while you bury the evidence.
Marie Marseille was alone in her Canoga Park apartment last Saturday, celebrating the New York Knicks winning their first NBA championship in over 50 years. A neighbor heard her screaming and called 911 requesting a wellness check. The caller, according to the family's attorney Brett Greenfield, "repeatedly stated that they did not see anything and simply requested that someone check on Marie Marseille's wellbeing." No violence. No domestic dispute. Just a concerned neighbor.
When officers knocked, Marseille answered the door cooperative and polite, standing next to her 2-year-old golden saint berdoodle, Jameson — both wearing Knicks gear. The dog was barking. One officer said, "Jeez, that's a big ass dog." The other replied, "I ain't getting bit by that bro." They told Marseille to put the dog inside. She complied.
But the damage was already being set in motion. According to the family's detailed statement, the shooting officer "appears to have had his firearm drawn virtually from the beginning of the encounter" — before Jameson emerged, while the dog was inside, after Marseille closed the door, and when the door reopened. The officer "repeatedly used profanity, focused on the dog's size, and displayed an aggressive attitude during what was supposed to be a welfare check."
When Jameson came back out the door and moved down the hall toward the second officer, shots were fired. Marseille told NBC News Los Angeles she saw the officer shoot Jameson twice. The family says the footage shows repeated shots fired "including after he had already fallen to the ground."
The LAPD's own 2023 use-of-force policy for hostile dog encounters lists seven tactics officers should consider before drawing a weapon: voice commands, chemical spray, baton, fire extinguisher, Taser, beanbag shotgun, and kicking. None appear to have been attempted.
Most alarming: Marseille herself "appears to have been standing in or near the officer's line of fire when shots were discharged," per the family's statement. A welfare check nearly became a human fatality.
Mayor Karen Bass called the footage "disturbing and tragic" and demanded a "thorough and transparent" investigation. LAPD Chief McDonnell promised a multilevel examination. The investigation could take up to a year. No apology has been issued to the family. The neighbor who called 911 did apologize.
A GoFundMe for "Justice for Jameson" has raised over $215,000 — more than twenty times its goal. The family says they'll establish a foundation in Jameson's name. Attorney Greenfield says the family will sue if things aren't handled "appropriately," adding: "I want them to take accountability. I want them to admit what they did was unjustifiable."
The question that lingers isn't whether this officer made the wrong call. The footage lets the public see that for themselves. The question is whether any system that investigates itself ever holds its own accountable — or whether a year from now, this just gets filed away as another justified use of force.
