Austin Police Officer Shoots and Kills Innocent Dog for no Reason [VIDEO]

I have to warn you the audio from this video hits home. It's live dashcam video of an Austin police officer responding to a domestic disturbance call. Unfortunately he goes to the wrong address.

Michael Paxton was playing in the backyard with his dog, Cisco on Sunday, April 14th at about 4:45 pm. Paxton decided to walk to his front yard to grab something out of his truck, when he was quickly confronted by an Austin Police officer pointing in his driveway pointing a gun at him yelling at him to put his hands up.

Paxton told ABC News.com,

"He had a Taser. He had pepper spray. I don’t understand why, in broad daylight, he pulled a gun on me. I wasn’t running. I wasn’t hiding. I was just saying, ‘I live here.’ I was panicking. I was afraid for my life.”

While the officer held Paxton at gunpoint, Cisco came from the backyard and began barking at the officer, in an attempt to protect his owner.

Paxton said he told the officer,

‘Don’t shoot him. Don’t shoot my dog. He won’t bite you.’

You can hear him say some of that in the video. Too bad it was after the officer had already fired, killing Cisco. Paxton had not moved to restrain his dog because the officer had a gun on him telling him to raise his hands. The whole incident happens in around 5 seconds. Nobody could respond to the choice of "grab my dog or remain with my hands up" that quickly.

Officer Griffin, the one who shot the dog, has had very little to say so far about the incident. His supervisor, Cpl. Anthony Hipolito, told ABCNews.com that the dog was barking and attacking the officer and that the officer “was in retreat” and asked Paxton to grab his dog. It sure doesn't sound like the dog had time to really attack the officer, or that Paxton had time to respond. Besides how do you respond when an officer has a gun pointed at you with orders to raise your hands? Which one do you want? Watch the video here.

After the incident happened, Michael Paxton shot a short :15 second video of the officer. He kind of seems like he doesn't care.

Now watch the ABCNews story of the incident, and listen to the description of the call Officer Griffin was responding too:

What I don't understand is that if this was a domestic disturbance call, as described in the news story about a drunk man harassing a woman, why approach with your guns drawn in the first place? And with the officers armed with many non-lethal forms of protection, like pepper-spray and tasers, why this officer thought the situation called for immediate brandishing of his firearm. I know they're trained to use deadly force as a last resort. I also know they are trained to be prepared for anything and to protect themselves and the citizens. But if this call merited going in with his gun drawn I would think that there might be some more officers on the scene before they attempt to enter the property.

I'm not a cop and I don't know the answers to this, but I do know that the Austin PD's response has been unacceptable.