Nearly seven years after a Loveland police officer shot and killed their beloved dog, Wendy Love and Jay Hamm hope a settlement reached with the department in a federal civil rights lawsuit will protect other dogs who encounter the department’s officers.
The city has agreed to pay the couple $675,000 and increase officer training on how to interact with dogs.
The settlement, reached in May, is the most a police department has paid for a dog shooting case in Colorado, according to Sarah Schielke of The Life & Liberty Law Office in Loveland, who represented Love and Hamm in the federal lawsuit.
“For seven years, this family has been told by LPD’s chain of command that what (Officer Mathew) Grashorn did was reasonable, was within policy, and required no changes,” Schielke said. “But today, the size of this long-awaited settlement and its terms prove otherwise.”
Love and Hamm were , Herkimer and Bubba, to fix an icebox while delivering firewood for their business. A nearby business owner called the police, citing reports from earlier that year of people tampering with dumpster locks.
Grashorn arrived shortly after, and Bubba, the older of the two dogs, approached. Grashorn pointed his gun at the dog, which Love and Hamm quickly called back to them, but the younger dog, Herkimer, ambled up to Grashorn, who shot the dog. Herkimer was later euthanized.
Then-Loveland Police Chief Bob Ticer and other supervisory staff reviewed the body-worn camera footage and incident report and eventually determined Grashorn did not do anything wrong when he shot the dog.
In 2021, the couple filed a federal lawsuit against the city, Grashorn, Ticer and a Loveland police sergeant, claiming Grashorn had violated their constitutional rights when he “unreasonably seized and killed” Herkimer.
Grashorn both that he had qualified immunity and that the dog posed an immediate threat.
Love described Herkimer as sweet and affectionate, in a statement provided by Schielke. The lawsuit was never about the money, she said, but about pushing for change.
“Herkimer’s senseless death ripped a hole in our hearts and lives that no other family should ever have to endure. Hopefully we did enough,” Love said in the statement.
In a published May 27, the city maintained that the dog “did not respond to commands, charged the officer and was subsequently shot.”
The city is “committed to the continuous evaluation of policies training, and practices intended to support public safety, transparency, and community trust,” the release states.
It’s not clear what the officer training will entail.
Love remains concerned that Grashorn is still a police officer.
“There will never be true justice for Herkimer so long as Grashorn remains employed as a police officer,” she added. “But at least Herkimer’s legacy will be the significant changes his case brought about in federal law and to LPD training and policy.”
