Drawing a firearm is a very serious decision. Choosing to use that firearm is an even more serious decision with life changing consequences.
This list highlights instances where the police chose to draw and use their firearms in four very different circumstances.
1. Wyckoff Cop Kills Dog
A Wyckoff township police offer responding to a burglary call mistook 621 Lawlins Road for 622 Lawlins Road and entered the fenced-in back yard while looking for a suspect. Seeing a window open in the back, Officer Kyle Ferreira approached the house with his gun drawn.
Unknown to the cop, the owners of the house leave the window open as a dog door for their 85 pound German Shepherd, who 
did not take kindly to the trespasser. According to police reports, as Ferreira approached the window, the German Shepherd, named Otto, jumped out of the window and latched onto the officer’s boot. The officer then shot the dog multiple times.
Witnesses, however, are contradicting the police’s version of the story. According to other accounts, the police officer walked straight passed the front door and into the back as neighbors tried to warn him that he was responding to the wrong house. Neighbors claim that Otto “was not even remotely posing a threat or attacking [Ferreira] in any way” and that he officer fired his gun “in broad daylight at a moving target in a residential neighborhood filled with children, families, and pets.”
