Officer Shot After Pointing Stun Gun at Man's Dogs

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A police officer was killed while responding to a domestic disturbance in a small eastern Pennsylvania borough had pointed a stun gun at two dogs before being shot, court records reveal.

Freemansburg police officer Robert Lasso had pointed at the attacking dogs when the homeowner pulled out a shotgun and fired the fatal blast on Thursday evening.

In police custody, the alleged gunman, 46-year-old George Hitcho Jr, said he had told Mr Lasso to get off his property and not come on unless he had a warrant, authorities said.

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If what the shooter says is true, then it's a tragedy, but many of us have seen comments to the effect of "if they try to kill my dogs..."
The officer had children and was "just following orders" and that is a very sad thing.
I couldn't make a judgement on who is right or wrong, having not been there, but I can picture it either way.
 
LKB3rd said:
If what the shooter says is true, then it's a tragedy, but many of us have seen comments to the effect of "if they try to kill my dogs..."
The officer had children and was "just following orders" and that is a very sad thing.
I couldn't make a judgement on who is right or wrong, having not been there, but I can picture it either way.
Click to expand...

Just following orders is never an excuse to destroy somebodies property (dogs) or to kill their family member (again some people see their dogs as family). The cop failed to heed the guys warning and now he's dead to show for it. He should have left and come back with a warrant if there were sufficient evidence.
 
Yikes... One thing is for sure, I bet that chief thinks twice before ordering anyone else dogs shot over the radio. This guy is well and truely screwed however, and I bet he fell down the stairs a few times while in custody [thinking]
 
Some people are tired of rolling over for uninformed authority figures and are taking a stand. The more big brother pushes the more some peoples own go time alarms will go off.
 
NHAtHeart said:
Just following orders is never an excuse to destroy somebodies property (dogs) or to kill their family member (again some people see their dogs as family). The cop failed to heed the guys warning and now he's dead to show for it. He should have left and come back with a warrant if there were sufficient evidence.
Click to expand...
I am just avoiding rushing to judgement. IF he had no reason to be on the property, refused to leave, and attempted to kill the dogs, then it is a tragedy for his family, but I don't fault the homeowner.
The other possibility is that there really was a domestic disturbance that he was investigating, and the homeowner got belligerent (probably tired of seeing bully cops like a lot of others) and murdered him.
Having not been there, and knowing how these things get spun beyond recognition after the fact, I don't feel like I could judge it either way fairly. There are plenty of cases with video where police are clearly in the wrong, but this one isn't clear like that with just people testifying after the fact about what happened.
I do think that the chief was wrong to advise him to do such a thing without being there. He should have told him to withdraw and de-escalate until assistance arrived. But hindsight is 20/20...
 
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If the officer was black ,it could be a hate crime but if the shooter was black and the officer was white ,hate crimes don't apply.
 
OK... there's plenty of anti-LE bias here. How about another view.

This appears to have been a domestic disturbance call. I don't believe LE needs a warrant to enter the premises under these circumstances. Someone correct me if I'm wrong here, but I think this cop had every right to enter the premises and did not need a warrant.

And we don't know the circumstances or the background. Is there a history of violence at this house? Is there a history of substance abuse or mental illness with this guy? Was the homeowner threatening use of the dogs as a weapon?

There's a murdered police officer here leaving behind a young family while trying to do his job. He may have been a straight-up cop who loves shooting as much as the rest of us. Yet some of you seem to be praising the murderer's actions.

C'mon...
 
richc said:
OK... there's plenty of anti-LE bias here. How about another view.

This appears to have been a domestic disturbance call. I don't believe LE needs a warrant to enter the premises under these circumstances. Someone correct me if I'm wrong here, but I think this cop had every right to enter the premises and did not need a warrant.

And we don't know the circumstances or the background. Is there a history of violence at this house? Is there a history of substance abuse or mental illness with this guy? Was the homeowner threatening use of the dogs as a weapon?

There's a murdered police officer here leaving behind a young family while trying to do his job. He may have been a straight-up cop who loves shooting as much as the rest of us. Yet some of you seem to be praising the murderer's actions.

C'mon...
Click to expand...

That is a much better job of articulating a potential scenario in which the shooter is in the wrong.
 
Possibly, or he could be as stand up as that cop in Canton Ohio who had a history of abusing the citizens with no regards to their rights. We may never know because police depts are masters of propaganda and the average citizen has no course of action when mistreated.
 
Tim L said:
Some people are tired of rolling over for uninformed authority figures and are taking a stand. The more big brother pushes the more some peoples own go time alarms will go off.
Click to expand...

^This.

From the article:
Police Chief George Bruneio, who arrived after Mr Lasso requested assistance, instructed him to 'shoot the dogs' and that's when the homeowner pulled out a shotgun and fired, authorities said.
Click to expand...

I'm surprised both officers were not shot. People have had enough.
 
NHAtHeart said:
Just following orders is never an excuse to destroy somebodies property (dogs) or to kill their family member (again some people see their dogs as family). The cop failed to heed the guys warning and now he's dead to show for it. He should have left and come back with a warrant if there were sufficient evidence.
Click to expand...

I agree, following orders is not an excuse to kill somebody's dogs while you are trespassing on his property. The officer should have left the man's property after being warned, not try to kill his dogs.

'He tried to kill my dogs and pointed a gun in my face,' Hitcho said, according to the documents. 'I do not care if you a cop or not'
Click to expand...

Cop or not, I would be hostile to anybody on my property refusing to leave and pointing a gun in my face. Not too mention the amount of dirty cops and crimes committed by criminals dressed up as officers nowadays.

richc said:
OK... there's plenty of anti-LE bias here. How about another view.

This appears to have been a domestic disturbance call. I don't believe LE needs a warrant to enter the premises under these circumstances. Someone correct me if I'm wrong here, but I think this cop had every right to enter the premises and did not need a warrant.

And we don't know the circumstances or the background. Is there a history of violence at this house? Is there a history of substance abuse or mental illness with this guy? Was the homeowner threatening use of the dogs as a weapon?

There's a murdered police officer here leaving behind a young family while trying to do his job. He may have been a straight-up cop who loves shooting as much as the rest of us. Yet some of you seem to be praising the murderer's actions.

C'mon...
Click to expand...

I dont think anybody is 'praising' the shooters actions, just putting themselves in the shooters shoes. Whose to say that the cop wasnt going to shoot the shooter afterwards, saying that he used the dogs against him as a weapon. Then it would be the shooter who is leaving behind a young family.
 
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Cops must follow orders if you don't like the laws then vote to change them. Here in Mass i have 7 friends who never
vote but run off with the mouth all the time

(Example house next door has underage drinking party last night 30 plus kids called police (police came 2.5 hours later) beford the police got here kids in my back yard (drinking and pissing on my apple trees 1 girl was half naked ) 3 year old grandson looks out window and seen this shit the home owner (mother) never home (2 cops 30 kids)
i was pissed it took the cops so long to get here But i understand there job (Now here is the seen ---30 kids drinking
some in the house some out side NO lights in her back yard ) who is in danager ?? Do the police wait for a warrant ??
 
rchap36 said:
Cops must follow orders if you don't like the laws then vote to change them. Here in Mass i have 7 friends who never
vote but run off with the mouth all the time

(Example house next door has underage drinking party last night 30 plus kids called police (police came 2.5 hours later) beford the police got here kids in my back yard (drinking and pissing on my apple trees 1 girl was half naked ) 3 year old grandson looks out window and seen this shit the home owner (mother) never home (2 cops 30 kids)
i was pissed it took the cops so long to get here But i understand there job (Now here is the seen ---30 kids drinking
some in the house some out side NO lights in her back yard ) who is in danager ?? Do the police wait for a warrant ??
Click to expand...

woah.
 
richc said:
OK... there's plenty of anti-LE bias here. How about another view.

This appears to have been a domestic disturbance call. I don't believe LE needs a warrant to enter the premises under these circumstances. Someone correct me if I'm wrong here, but I think this cop had every right to enter the premises and did not need a warrant.

And we don't know the circumstances or the background. Is there a history of violence at this house? Is there a history of substance abuse or mental illness with this guy? Was the homeowner threatening use of the dogs as a weapon?

There's a murdered police officer here leaving behind a young family while trying to do his job. He may have been a straight-up cop who loves shooting as much as the rest of us. Yet some of you seem to be praising the murderer's actions.

C'mon...
Click to expand...

I agree that in your scenario the homeowner would be the bad guy, maybe he was fighting with his wife and she called the cops we don't know. But the use of exigent circumstances has run amok and is completely out of control, this was a situation where the leo was going to shoot the guys two dogs just to verify everything was ok. So what happens after the dogs get capped and the officer finds that the 911 call was a pocket dial while the wife and husband were rough housing? The officer goes on his way and says "I was just following orders" meanwhile the homeowner is left with two dead dogs and a feeling the .gov really isn't there to help at all.
 
I was only following orders. Where have we heard that before ? Change what laws? The problem isn't the law, it's that a lot of cops are inventing laws to do whatever they want. Kick his ass ,seize his stuff, shoot his dog we'll decide what to charge him with later. Abuse of the laws is the problem.
 
Violate the law, subject to self defense. Guy had a gun to his face and was about to watch his dogs get popped, that's criminal behavior on part of the uniform and a disgrace to good cops everywhere. The street goes both ways, there is no separation of classes, all are citizens and all are subject to the same laws. He was trespassing and refused to recognize the law, all while threatening someone with a gun to his face and his dogs. I don't even need to know the rest of the story, there's enough broken laws there to put a non-leo away for 15 - 20, except this time it's a leo. I'm not anti-police, I'm anti-law enforcement personnel, two very different things. Apparently this law enforcement robo figured out that the law applies on both ends of the spectrum the hard way. It's too bad, because it was probably his peers and superiors that instilled this "civilians are the enemy, forget the law, do what you have to do, it's us vs the world" mentality that ended up getting him killed. He could have came back with a warrant, with backup, hell with justification. No need to shoot dogs and draw guns on people, but rambo had to prove a point and affirm his authority per direct orders of superiors.

I'm sorry for the rant, but I'm getting sick of reading stories like this. Families are getting torn apart because of this sh*t, and it's mainly because LAW ENFORCEMENT (not police, don't get it confused, I like police, I heavily dislike jack booted thugs) with this wannabe PMC mentality decided that the law doesn't apply to them and the constitution is irrelevant. They are killing people left and right, and in this instance a cop got killed....all because they decided to separate the classes being "LEO vs Civilian". End rant.

ADD: I actually read the details of the story after going on my rant, apparently the guy with the dogs was still a HUGE scumbag, but this didn't have to end in bloodshed if the letter of the law was followed...this is poor judgement, still a tragedy, but poor judgement. I'm leaving the statements I made above up because in MOST cases, it applies. However in this one, the suspect was truly a scumbag. So the above statement doesn't completely apply to this, but it does however apply to all SWAT personnel or LEOs that prefer black over blue you have ever encountered.
 
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Tim L said:
I was only following orders. Where have we heard that before ? Change what laws? The problem isn't the law, it's that a lot of cops are inventing laws to do whatever they want. Kick his ass ,seize his stuff, shoot his dog we'll decide what to charge him with later. Abuse of the laws is the problem.
Click to expand...

Not all cops are Bad (WIFE CALLS POLICE )POLICE WAIT FOR WARRANT WIFE KILLED POLICE AND CITY OR TOWN IN TROUBLE) HUSBAND SENDS DOGS OUT AFTER POLICE( POLICE SHOOTS DOG POLICE IN TROUBLE)
 
Nobody said all cops are bad, but there is no tolerance here for those that are. A citizens life and property are no less valuable than a person with a badge.
 
richc said:
OK... there's plenty of anti-LE bias here. How about another view.

This appears to have been a domestic disturbance call. I don't believe LE needs a warrant to enter the premises under these circumstances. Someone correct me if I'm wrong here, but I think this cop had every right to enter the premises and did not need a warrant.

And we don't know the circumstances or the background. Is there a history of violence at this house? Is there a history of substance abuse or mental illness with this guy? Was the homeowner threatening use of the dogs as a weapon?

There's a murdered police officer here leaving behind a young family while trying to do his job. He may have been a straight-up cop who loves shooting as much as the rest of us. Yet some of you seem to be praising the murderer's actions.

C'mon...
Click to expand...

Exactly,
Let's say your adult daughter makes a bad choice and moves in with some unstable moron. The guy has been know to hit her. She calls because she is concerned about her safety. Cops come, can't investigate without a warrant. They leave. The boyfriend then kills your daughter for ratting him out again.
Then what?
Happens every day.
 
I'd certainly have to hear more details before I start making claims of "the man violating my rights". I may have missed it, but what was the "domestic disturbance"? Who called it in? Were the dogs attacking? Was he on an access way?

I'd need the whole picture. If it's there and I missed it, could I get a break down?
 
tragedy happens every day, it doesn't mean that we have to give up our constitutional rights. Police abuse can also happen every day, it doesn't mean we should tolerate it.If I think a family member is in grave danger then I remove the threat and worry about the law later. If a cop is a threat to a family member he doesn't get to kill them and go back to work with a "sorry". I don't know all the facts in this case, I just gave a possible scenario. Thats what several here have done . What if can go on forever, but be advised that abuse by law enforcement has pushed many to the breaking point. The world is changing and the sheep are standing up more everyday.
CJKarl said:
Exactly,
Let's say your adult daughter makes a bad choice and moves in with some unstable moron. The guy has been know to hit her. She calls because she is concerned about her safety. Cops come, can't investigate without a warrant. They leave. The boyfriend then kills your daughter for ratting him out again.
Then what?
Happens every day.
Click to expand...
 

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