Fro The Trussville Tribune staff reports
TRUSSVILLE –Charges are expected to be filed later this week after a dog died after being left in a hot car in the Walmart parking lot on Wednesday, Trussville police Lt. Phil Dillon said.
“Our officer was called around 11 a.m. by someone who saw the dog in the car,” Dillon said. “The officer had the store page the name of the car owner over the loud speaker, but no one responded. He also called a supervisor.”
Dillon said the supervisor arrived within minutes and observed that the dog was breathing, but in distress. He knocked the car window out in an effort to save the dog, but those efforts failed and the dog died.
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“The dog was alive when we got it out of the car, but died later and it breaks our heart,” Dillon said. “We have a K9 unit on our force and we love dogs. It’s a terrible situation when something like this happens.”
Dillon said the officers continued the investigation and checked the surveillance video of the parking lot.
Video showed the white female driver parked the older model Mercedes in the parking lot at about 4 a.m. and entered the store. According to her drivers license, she is a Trussville resident in her mid-30s, Dillon said. She was not an employee of Walmart.
“She finally arrived at her vehicle and told our officers that she never heard her name paged,” Dillon said. “I don’t know if she was in the store the whole time or left premises.”
Dillon said the investigation would continue and he expects charges to be filed in the case within the next day or two.
Asked about patrol division policy in such matters, Dillon said he had not yet spoken with the patrol supervisors about policy and would wait until he had gathered further information before addressing the issue.
Stacy Gutherie of Trussville captured the video below of the rescue attempt. WARNING: some of the images may be disturbing.
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