Free Thought Project – by Jack Burns
Faulkner County Sheriff’s Office K-9 deputy Keenan Wallace was immediately fired after shooting Doug Canady’s 9-pound Chihuahua-mix breed dog named “Reece’s” in the head in January 2019. But the Sheriff’s Office did not stop with Wallace’s termination. They charged their own officer with animal cruelty. Just this week, in a follow-up to the story we brought you, Wallace pleaded “No-contest” against the charges and was sentenced to community service and a $640 fine.
Wallace responded to a 911 call about an aggressive dog from a resident who was walking by Canady’s home. Canady is an emergency medicine helicopter pilot (Medivac). He’s also a veteran who spent 21 years flying Black Hawks in the military. The veteran pilot refused to speak with Wallace when he arrived to investigate the 911 phone call. Canady says it was that action, refusing to speak with him, which caused Wallace to retaliate and shoot the dog the very second the officer believed he could justify killing the animal.
Luckily Reece’s lived. A GoFundMe account was set up and raised over $22,000 for the chihuahua’s recovery and subsequent surgeries. Unfortunately, as you’ll see at the end of our story, things didn’t go well for the dog’s owner, Mr. Canady, who is still troubled over the incident.
Animal rights activists, who expect law enforcement officers not to indiscriminately shoot and kill family pets, apparently bombarded the Faulkner County Sheriff’s office with so many complaints about Wallace the sheriff was forced to respond. At the time of the shooting, Sheriff Tim Ryals said his department investigated the shooting and although his officer had not broken any police department procedures, his employment was terminated after failing to deescalate the situation with the homeowner and his animal.
The county prosecutor’s office was also notified and animal cruelty charges were filed against Wallace four months after the incident took place. Earlier this month, the now former Faulkner County Sheriff’s deputy pleaded no-contest to the charge and was given 80 hours of community service. He now has about six months to complete the community service or he will be subjected to spending a maximum of a year in jail.
Wallace will also be forced to undergo a psychiatric evaluation by a medical doctor. The special prosecutor in the case recommended the evaluation and the judge agreed. Fifth Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Jeffery Wayne Phillips made the recommendation which was accepted by Circuit Judge Troy Braswell Jr. Along with the community service hours and the psychiatric evaluation, Wallace has also been ordered to pay a $640 fine along with his other court fees.
The ruling must come as a relief to Canady who has claimed in court documents the officer was more frustrated with the homeowner and less concerned with the dog’s barking. Canady said he felt Wallace “was frustrated at my response to his demands while on private property instead of any fear of Reese’s.”
Rare it is when officers are held accountable for shooting family pets. Perhaps since it was a chihuahua, this problem finally got some attention. The problem is so bad in America the federal government has deemed it a national “epidemic”. Cops kill on average 25-30 family pets per day. The issue is so prevalent the federal Department of Justice has issued guidelines to law enforcement agencies on how to deal with the epidemic.
Unfortunately, the story of Reece’s has taken a strange yet tragic turn for the worse. A woman named “Sharon” who was reportedly caring for Reece’s following the near-death experience with Officer Wallace and subsequent surgeries, has refused to give Reeces back to Canady. The decorated Army veteran posted a photo of text messages sent to the lady whereby he is asking to be able to come and pick up Reece’s.
Again it seems, Canady is looking for police to do the right thing and help him get his dog back.
One of Canady’s Facebook friends named Brenda Sullivan took to Facebook to explain what happened: “Someone was keeping her, to keep her out of harms way. Because someone poisoned her plus the other dogs and one of the dogs died. So they were supposed to keep her for Doug. for a little while.”
Apparently, an evil person poisoned all of Canady’s dogs, killing one and sickening Reese’s. The chihuahua mix was then placed in the protective custody of an outsider named Sharon who now refuses to give the dog back to its rightful owner. This story is far from over folks, but at least justice was served up to the trigger-happy cop who could’ve killed anyone with his bullet fired in close proximity to others.