Police shot my dog on my property

I am just bummed out about my dog getting shot and am looking into legal action. I am just curious about what options I have right now. The details are thus:

Saturday morning approx. 8:30 am, a local neighborhood market was robbed at knife point and the suspect was followed to my block before he was lost. The police set up a perimeter around the entire block and figured the suspect to be trapped.

4 police officers started searching in back yards for the suspect. They entered my neighbor's yard through the gate and determined that the suspect was not in her yard. Looking over the fence they saw that my garage door was open and proceded to climb over the fence to gain entry.

1 officer was already physically present within the fenced area of my yard as a second was still climbing the fence. My dog came out of the garage where he sleeps, chased the officer that was on the fence first, then turned to the officer in the yard. As the dog approached he yelled, "Get back" and then shot the dog in the head. I rushed him to the vet, but he died a couple hours later.

Please keep in mind that myself, my girlfriend, and our 2 year old son were all in the house and awake when we heard the yelling, the dog bark, and the shot. At no time prior to this did anyone knock on the door to announce that they had a fugitive loose in the neighborhood, nor did they attempt to yell out a warning as they were coming over the fence. They knew that the suspect was in the neighborhood (and they did catch him in a tool shed a few houses down from mine), but they were not in "hot pursuit" chasing him down.

Now, since this happened in California, I believe that a pet is considered personal property and this would constitute a fourth amendment violation. Am I correct in this assumption?

Any advice is appreciated.

Jon

Below is a copy of the newspaper article about the shooting. Maybe that will inspire sone help.

While Merced police officers were pursuing a shoplifting suspect Saturday morning, a pit bull threatened them and an officer shot the dog, which died about nine hours later while being treated by a local veterinarian.
Lt. Andre Matthews of the Merced Police Department said officers ultimately apprehended Frederico R. Gonzales, 40, of Merced in the 1200 block of West 20th Street. He is suspected of shoplifting from the Grocery Outlet, 1125 W. Main St.
Matthews said officers were searching backyards in the 1200 block of West 19th and 20th streets for Gonzales. Officers Brian Rodriguez and Raquel Rios, the first officers on the scene, had observed the man run down the alley but did not see which yard he entered.
During the backyard search, officers saw an open door on a shed and entered the yard to see if the suspect was hiding inside. While checking the yard, a 10-year-old pit bull ran at one of the officers. The dog continued to charge at the officer who then fired one shot at the dog.
Matthews said the owner of the dog was notified and an animal control officer took the injured canine to a local veterinarian for treatment of the gunshot wound and shock.
Gonzales was found hiding in a backyard in the 1200 block of West 20th Street and tried to escape by jumping a fence again but was surrounded by officers, Matthews said.
Gonzales was booked into Merced County Jail on suspicion of petty theft, aggravated assault, making terrorist threats, resisting arrest, along with a felony warrant and two misdemeanor warrants. He remained in jail Sunday night in lieu of $148,000 bail, a correctional official said.
The name of the officer involved in the shooting is not being released, Matthews said.
"The officer spoke with the owner to tell him what had happened. Both the dog's owner and the officer were saddened that the dog had to be shot and everyone was hopeful that the dog would recover from its injury. At about 6 p.m. notification was made that the dog did not survive his injury," Matthews said.
At 9:18 a.m., officers responded to the Grocery Outlet. Store employees said a man who was being detained for shoplifting had bit one person to get away.
Store employees told dispatchers the man then pulled a knife and threatened to kill the employees before running from the establishment, Matthews reported.

First it will be hard to dispute the officers account that the pit bull ran at him/her. Assuming that you actually won a case in small claims court you might be able to get the $$ for the dog as well as some pain and suffering but this is doubtful based on the newspaper article that the dog charged the officer.

It might have been different if it was a different breed such as a Yorkie. It would be difficult for the officer to justify shooting a Yorkie when the Yorkie charged....but pit bulls kill people (also very loving) but they have the jaw strength to cause injury to a grown man.

legaleagle,
Just so you know, I have decided not to pursue any action against anyone. At first I was terribly hurt to lose my pet, but can truely see no good coming of a lawsuit against anyone. It will not bring my pet back and it may cause some resentment from the police department and it really was just a bad set of circumstances that led to the whole incident.

I have a cousin in the sherrif's department and he has been a great help to get me through this. He stated that procedure was followed and gave me an insight into the mentallity of an officer when chasing a suspect and has helped me to see that it was just a tragic accident.

Having said all of that though, (there is always a but isn't there? ) am I mistaken in that this would fall under a Fourth Amendment violation? Or even quite possibly illegal trespass? My cousin and I are having our own legal debate about what happened and I am curious as to your opinion. It seems to me that as long as the police department had the area surrounded and little worry for the suspect to escape, that they should have been knocking on peoples doors and asking to search instead of just jumping over fences and searching. Am I mistaken on this? It would be nice to get one over on my cousin on this as he is too smart for his own good.

Thanks for the reply
Jon

It seems to me that the decent thing to do would be for the officer to find you a new puppy whether he is legally required to compensate or not.