TERRE HAUTE — The Terre Haute Police Department responded Wednesday to a video posted on social media that alleges animal cruelty against one of its officers.
The person who posted the 22-second Ring video on Twitter wrote that police responded after someone allegedly broke into their home.
The video appears to show an officer approaching the porch where a dog is standing and barking. The officer then kicks the dog multiple times before the canine runs away.
The video has been viewed more than 221,000 times on Twitter since it was posted at 3:49 p.m. Tuesday.
The Terre Haute Police Department posted a 3-minute, 47-second video Wednesday that shows body-worn camera footage from the incident.
The post accompanying the video says a police sergeant responded after 7 p.m. Monday to calls about an aggressive pit bull in the 1700 block of Ohio Street that had been “charging at everyone that goes by.”
The sergeant was told the dog previously “has bitten a child and a mailman and is very, very aggressive” and that the dog’s behavior was an ongoing problem.
In the body-worn camera video, the sergeant walked through the neighborhood where he encountered the white pit bull and a brown dog running at the officer. The sergeant spoke to a neighbor about the dogs before approaching the house depicted in the video posted to social media.
Terre Haute Police said the man who lives at the house declined to make a complaint after the 22-second video was posted on social media.
The department provided video, reports and body-worn camera footage to the Vigo County Prosecutor's Office, the post said. The prosecutor's office, which informed the police department that no crime occurred, will release the full video Wednesday.
"While the conduct in the video has been determined by the prosecutor to not constitute a crime by the officer and the body camera footage is in sharp contrast to the original social media narrative, we will still be objectively evaluating the conduct to see if it violates any departmental policies or directives," the post said.
The sergeant in the video has been placed on administrative duty.
See the Terre Haute Police Department's Facebook post with body-cam video below:
