A Columbia County Sheriff’s Department deputy is accused of shooting a woman while trying to shoot her Pomeranian dog after she called 911 for help.
Tina Hight filed a lawsuit against Deputy Brian Williams and retired Columbia County Sheriff Mike Loe, the local ABC affiliate KATV reported. The incident allegedly occurred in August 2022, with Hight adding that the bullet is still lodged in her shin.
Hight told the outlet since the incident, she’s suffered anxiety and has to go to frequent doctor’s appointments as a result.
The suit says the deputy was “in no danger whatsoever from the animal” and had “no basis to discharge his weapon.”
KATV obtained bodycam footage which recorded Williams shouting at the dog on Hight’s porch as he stands a short distance away.
“Get back, get your dog, I’ll kill this ************. Get your godd**n dog,” he’s reportedly heard yelling.
Williams is also heard firing a warning shot before yelling, “You better get back. I’ll kill this.” He then fires a shot, appearing to aim at the dog.
“You just shot me,” Hight screams and falls on her porch.
“I shot who?” the deputy asked. Another woman is heard yelling, “You shot my aunt.”
“I didn’t shoot her,” he replies.
Hight and Williams are heard arguing over the incident, which she later described as “very scary” to KATV.
“I have never been shot before…I didn’t know…I knew I was hit, I didn’t know how bad, I didn’t understand,” Hight told the outlet.
The deputy later in the video says one of Hight’s dogs scratched her.
Hight’s attorney, Tre Kitchens, said it’s “by the grace of God” that she wasn’t killed in the incident, per KATV.
“He missed, he didn’t hit the dog and instead shot my client…with his fellow deputy standing about eight inches from my client,” said Kitchens. “We’re also alleging that the sheriff of Columbia County clearly did not train him, did not educate him, and if that kind of behavior is appropriate in Columbia County there’s a bigger issue with that department in general.”
The deputy was cleared of wrongdoing after an investigation by the Arkansas State Police.
“The evidence will come out accurately; and the video will be in it’s [sic] entirety and forth coming [sic],” he wrote. “The video will show that the Deputy was responding to a know[n] residence as the dog aggressively came at him.”
“The Deputy was cleared by The Arkansas State Police and The Prosecutor’s Office of any wrongdoing in this incident,” Sheriff Leroy Martin, who is now the sheriff but wasn’t at the time of the incident said. “This Incident was handled by the previous Sheriff, and I too WILL stand with Our Deputy on this matter.”
