Arlington, TX — As readers of the Free Thought Project know, police killing or attempting to kill dogs is an all too common occurrence — happening so often that it is caught on video much of the time. Also, as the following tragic case our of Arlington, TX illustrates, all too often, police will attempt to kill a dog — miss the dog — and shoot and kill an innocent person instead.

A Texas grand jury indicted a police officer this week after he was seen on video trying to kill a dog and killing an innocent woman instead.

Arlington police officer Ravi Singh was charged on Wednesday with criminally negligent homicide for killing Maggie Brooks, 30, the daughter of an Arlington fire captain.

“It’s a puppy. This is a grown man afraid of a puppy. Who is the paid professional in this encounter? Every child, every mailman, every runner, jogger, bicyclist has dealt with a dog running at them and no one ends up dead. Why do you go to deadly force immediately?” Brooks’ father, Troy Brooks, said.

Brooks explained to FOX4 that he thought the charges should have been more severe given the ridiculous nature of his daughter’s death.

“We were hoping for a manslaughter indictment. We got what we got,” he added.

Singh’s attorney, Kathy Lowthorp, responded to Singh’s arrest with the following statement, blaming the dog and not the cop who killed an innocent sleeping woman.

“Well, when you deal with a dog that’s ready to attack then the person in any one of those careers would have to do what they have to do to protect themselves. And there was malice against the daughter — she was just in the wrong place. The dog should’ve been on a leash.”

This statement rings hollow however, as Brooks’ father pointed out, pizza delivery drivers, package delivery workers, meter readers, and any other number of folks interact with dogs in the public on a regular basis, and do not kill them.

As TFTP reported at the time, the shooting happened at approximately 5:15 p.m. on August 1, 2019. Police were in the area to conduct a welfare check on a sleeping woman who was reportedly passed out in a grassy area near Canton Drive and North Collins Street. That woman was Brooks. Instead of receiving help, however, Brooks received a fatal bullet.

According to police, as Singh approached the sleeping woman lying in the grass, he saw a stray dog. Singh called out to Brooks when all of the sudden, the dog started running toward him, so he fired his weapon several times. The officer missed the dog, but hit the woman instead.

“As the officer called out to the woman repeatedly concerning her welfare, the dog began to run towards the officer while barking. The officer retreated backwards from the running dog while drawing his duty firearm,” police said at the time. “The officer discharged his firearm multiple times towards the dog. After the shots were fired, the woman yelled out and it was apparent she was injured.”

Brooks was transported to a local hospital where she was pronounced dead.

“Officers responding to welfare checks should not be so quick to use their deadly weapons in situations that do not call for use of force. Our hope is not only that this officer is held responsible for Maggie’s death, but that the Arlington Police Department is also held accountable for its lack of training and procedures in responding to welfare checks,” the Brooks family said in a statement.

We agree.

If convicted, Singh is facing a maximum sentence of just 2 years in jail.

As for Brooks, her three children — ages 9, 11, and 13 — now live with their grandfather, who says this entire situation could’ve been easily avoided.

“Rule number one,” he said. “Don’t kill the citizens.”

Article posted with permission from Matt Agorist