A Cedartown police officer who shot and killed a miniature donkey during a search for a missing child has asked a federal judge to dismiss the owner’s civil rights lawsuit.
Trenton Ryan Garner filed the motion on 7 October in the US District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, seeking dismissal with prejudice. He is also claiming qualified immunity, which can protect public officials from personal liability for actions taken in the course of their duties.
The case, filed by HeeHaw’s owner Hannah Israel, centres on the events of 30 August at Elsberry Riding and Farm in Rockmart, Georgia. Officers were searching for a missing 12-year-old girl when they entered an enclosed pasture shortly after midnight.
The girl was later found safe. Israel alleges that officers entered her property without a warrant or permission before shooting HeeHaw, whom she says posed no threat.
What the officer argues
Garner’s filing argues that the pasture was not protected from warrantless police searches and says the shooting was reasonable in the circumstances.
According to the motion, officers were tracking the missing child using a drone and a police dog when they entered the land. HeeHaw approached the search team, and one officer used a Taser before Garner fired his weapon.
The filing asks the judge, alternatively, to treat the request as a motion for summary judgment after limited, expedited evidence-gathering focused on the encounter.
What happened to HeeHaw
Israel’s lawsuit claims the donkey was shot without provocation after officers entered the fenced property. It describes HeeHaw as young and docile, and alleges violations of her constitutional rights relating to the search, the seizure of the animal and the destruction of her property.
Body camera footage supplied to local media shows one officer using a Taser while another, identified in the lawsuit as Garner, shoots the donkey. The recording was authenticated by a police evidence manager and submitted as unedited material in the court proceedings.
HeeHaw ran away after being shot and collapsed in the field, where Israel’s family searched for up to 20 minutes before finding his body, according to reports on the footage and the lawsuit.
Garner has been placed on administrative leave while the Cedartown Police Department investigates. The Georgia Department of Agriculture’s Law Enforcement Division is also reviewing the shooting.
Israel’s federal case was filed on 11 September in the Rome division of the Northern District of Georgia and includes a demand for a jury trial. No judge has yet ruled on Garner’s request for dismissal.
