'Cold-hearted and cruel'

COEUR d'ALENE - When Jessi Johnson heard the gunshot that killed a 2-year-old Labrador on July 9, her first reaction was to get her children to the back of her home.

Johnson, 30, lives across the street from the back parking lot of Java on Sherman. While she was securing her three children, Johnson said, her roommate went outside to figure out what was happening.

"He came back inside and said 'I think a police officer just shot somebody, there's a police officer right across the street with his gun pointed at a van,'" Johnson said.

Five minutes after she heard the gunshot, Johnson said, she went outside and saw an officer holstering his weapon. Shortly after, three other police officers arrived and Johnson said the officer who fired the shot left the scene after a brief conversation.

"Animal Control pulled up to the white van and opened the door and removed a small black Lab," Johnson said. "They pulled him out of the van and loaded him into the animal control vehicle. The vehicle left and the officers stuck around for maybe three minutes."

During the three minutes, Johnson said, her roommate was upset and asking the officers questions about what had happened.

"An officer came across the street over to my yard and said 'It was a vicious pit bull that tried to lunge out and attack my partner.' We told him we just saw them load a black Lab and he knows what a black Lab looks like versus a pit bull; anybody knows that," Johnson said.

Her roommate confronted the officer about the fact that the dog was not a "vicious pit bull" but a Labrador. According to Johnson, the officer replied he was done discussing the matter and walked back across the street.

"There's a back door of Java where all the employees go out to smoke and there were at least five employees out there at this point. Everybody is watching the whole thing happen," Johnson said. "At this point the officers leave, the staff kind of goes through the back door back into the business and my roommate had to go to work."

When Craig Jones - the owner of the van and Arfee, the shot Labrador - exited Java, Johnson said she asked him if it was his van.

"He looked completely fine, this guy had no clue," Johnson said. "He was puzzled and said, "Yes, why?' I just kind of looked down at the ground and I didn't know how to tell him. He looked over at the van and saw the bullet hole in the glass. He was just in shock and ran over and ripped the door open to the van and just said 'Where's my dog?'"

Johnson said she was the one to tell him.

Jones dropped to his knees, crying, Johnson said. After telling him her account of the event, she told Jones she was going to take pictures of his van. What happened next, she said, was the second thing that disturbed her that day.

"At that point, a tow truck pulled in to the front of the parking lot and there were five guys who surrounded Craig, apparently one of them was the landlord, and all I heard them say was that his vehicle needed to leave the property immediately. Craig came over to me and was shouting 'Please don't tow my van, there's no reason to tow my van,'" Johnson said.

The tow truck left, and Jones and Johnson continued to stand by the van. She said they were once again surrounded by the five men, who demanded that Jones leave the parking lot.

"I just looked at the guy and said, 'Will you please just give him 10 minutes? He's asking for a ride and he doesn't want to sit in his dog's blood and there's glass in his van,'" Johnson said. "Him (the landlord) and I kind of got into it at that point, because I thought it was so cruel and cold-hearted."

Johnson added that Jones then got into his van and left because "he didn't have any other choice."

It was Johnson who initially reported to Java on Sherman via Facebook that there was a suspicious van in the area. She said Jones' van didn't match her description and the whole incident that transpired was horrible.

"Nobody was going to tell him, he had no idea what he was coming out to," Johnson said. "They all left and it was so cold-hearted and cruel. I have never seen something so nasty from so many people."