Please help us get #JusticeForOpey, the dog. Wells Township PD (in Brilliant, OH) received a call of a loose dog and when attending to the call Officer Jacob Reasoner shot the dog in cold blood within a minute, according to witness, after pulling into the school parking lot at Buckeye North Elementary School near Community Park in Brilliant, Ohio on September 10th around 11 a.m. The officer never attempted any non-lethal options like using pepper spray or a taser. According to several witnesses, other options like simply getting into his patrol car to avoid the animal and calling animal control, could have easily been employed. There are numerous witnesses that say the officer reacted unnecessarily with lethal means without ever trying to solve the situation in non-lethal ways. And this took place in a school zone with people in and around the area of the track and elsewhere, according to witnesses. I am an ardent supporter of all police including Wells Township police, but the officer's actions today were unacceptable, with Wells Township officers even threatening several with arrest (including me) for confronting and simply asking why he shot the dog, which was still suffering and alive when the officer was callously dragging the dog to his patrol car by his legs, as the dog whimpered and sighed, to leave the scene. I was standing there confronting and asking the officer as he dragged the dog on the pavement leaving a blood stain as he pulled the dog to his patrol car. I am starting this petition on Change.org to get the facts, and if necessary, have this officer fired! The officer could have simply just got back into his patrol car to avoid the dog and called animal control, but the officer resorted to the option of deadly force first! He escalated the situation! Cops de-escalate problem situations. So, why did the officer escalate this situation? Now the whole town of Brilliant does not feel safe anymore with this officer. And correctly so! 

      A witness, who was walking on the track with her boyfriend at the time of the shooting, sent me messages on Facebook. Here are some excerpts of are exchange and her statements. 

    I asked the lady, “Did anyone in Brilliant PD happen to contact you to get a statement from you about the situation?” She responded, “No. We didn’t see the officer shoot the dog or what led up to it by the time we made it to where we could see them, he was dragging the dog by the leg to the car and I was so upset and told my boyfriend I didn’t want to be there anymore. Thinking back to it I wish we would have stayed and talked to the chief. Because I couldn’t even get them (she is referring to the two dogs running loose) to come to me when we first got to the track. We were there for like an hour, Those dogs never bothered anyone that whole time even being around a man walking his dog.” 

     The woman added, “We saw the cop car pull in and like a minute later heard three gun shots then when we got passed the bleachers is when we saw him dragging the dog.” The lady reiterated, “my boyfriend and I were walking the track at the time. Those dogs did not seem to be bothering anyone. They certainly weren’t bothering us, and we weren’t far from them.” I then asked her, “How long was the cop there before he used lethal force?” She responded, “It wasn’t long at all. It was terrifying and I feel so bad for the owner and the dog. I hope they do something about him.” The woman and her boyfriend declared that it was less than a minute from when the officer arrived to when he shot Opey the dog. That means the officer only considered and then employed lethal force immediately when arriving. 

    Brilliant has always been a very nice and safe place to live. However, Brilliant residents no longer feel safe because of the reckless and mean-spirited actions of Officer Jacob Reasoner, who also is a Steubenville Police Department officer. In one day, this Officer Reisner managed to destroy the faith and trust that our wonderful little community had placed in our police department. The people of Brilliant, Steubenville and good citizens of the Ohio Valley are in an uproar about this unjust killing of someone’s beloved family pet. They are demanding answers and #JusticeForOpey! Please join us and sign the petition to get the facts and if necessary for Officer Jacob Reasoner fired for excessive force violations and face animal cruelty charges for utilizing excessive force in a situation that had no need for it, especially since non-lethal means, which were not even attempted, could have brought the matter to a much better ending. An officer who resorts to deadly force as his first option so quickly obviously does not have the correct temperament, personal restraint necessary and frankly the common sense required to protect and serve the good folks Brilliant, Ohio and the Ohio Valley in a reasonable manner. Everyone, meaning witnesses and others, I have spoken with many about this situation and all responded to this tragedy with empathy. Well, all except Wells Township police.