‘He didn’t deserve to die’: Family mourns dog shot, killed by Henderson officer

A Henderson family whose dog was shot and killed by a police officer is disputing the officer’s claim that the dog was being aggressive and was about to attack when he pulled out his gun and fired earlier this month.

But according to a police report about the Sept. 5 incident, the Henderson Police Department officer said it was his “belief that the release of the dog was intentional” by the man who was at the house and that the dog was possibly being used as a “weapon against law enforcement personnel.”

One word — gentle — kept coming up when Rebecca Bobowski was asked recently to describe Bruno, the rescue dog she and her family adopted about five years ago.

“We got him when he was 11 months old and from the jump, all he wanted was love and affection,” Bobowski said. “He was so gentle. He knew he was big — he was super gentle whenever he was around a child or someone smaller than him.”

Standing in the living room of her Henderson home Wednesday, Bobowski showed a framed collage of photos that featured Bruno, which included one of the dog in a holiday sweater and another of him with a duck named Abby.

Abby, a duck that used to live in Bobowski’s backyard, was Bruno’s best friend.

In a 10-page incident report obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the officer who shot the dog, Christian Salas, said Bruno, a white and brown boxer/Dogo Argentino mix that weighed close to 100 pounds, was about to attack when he drew his handgun.

“In a last-ditch effort to avoid being attacked, I jumped off the sidewalk into the roadway to move out of the dog’s direct path and gain an angle of advantage on the dog as it lunged toward me,” Salas said in the report. “I discharged one round from my department-issued firearm at the dog in order to stop the aggressing threat.”

But Bobowski, her ex-boyfriend, who was at the home that night, and at least two neighbors said the dog was not being aggressive.

In the report, Amber Sidell, a neighbor, said Bruno was acting in a “curious” manner and that Salas “obviously knowing zero about animal behavior, shot and killed the dog out of his own fear.”

Nick Dornan, Bobowski’s ex-boyfriend and the father of her three children, said he believes the officer’s use of force was excessive.

“Bruno never jumped or barked at the officer,” Dornan said in a text message. “He ran up to him to play. None of it makes any sense to me. I don’t think (Bruno) deserved that.”

What happened that night

Just before 9 p.m. on Sept. 5, Bobowski wasn’t at her home on Patti Ann Woods Drive. She had been staying with her brother after a separation from Dornan.

She said she became concerned when Dornan texted her that he had fallen down. After getting no answer when she tried to call, she decided to call 911 to request a wellness check. She figured he was likely intoxicated and that he might need help.

“I told dispatch that there would be two dogs, Bruno and a grey pitbull named Pepper,” Bobowski said. “I said if the dogs are too loud when the EMTs respond, to just call their names. Dispatch said it would be fine, that they weren’t worried.”

After Henderson Fire Department showed up to check on Dornan, two Henderson police officers, including Salas, also arrived.

According to the report, the other officer called Bobowski, stating that they believed Dornan was likely intoxicated and that he “refused any assistance.”

Due to a domestic violence incident in June, according to the report, a no-contact order was in place for the couple.

Bobowski, who was already on her way to the home, arrived just after 9 p.m. to find out Bruno had been killed.

In a voicemail message from Dornan to Bobowski from just after 9 p.m. that was shared with the Review-Journal, Dornan can be heard calling out Bruno’s name.

A woman’s voice in the background of the voicemail, presumed to be the female officer who responded to the house, can be heard asking Dornan why he let the dog out of the house.

“He just slipped past me,” Dornan can be heard saying. “He’s not aggressive at all.”

Officer’s account

In his account of the shooting, Salas said it was his “belief that the release of the dog was intentional,” according to the report. He said after Dornan told officers to leave his property, the officers walked to a sidewalk in front of the house, and Salas said in the report that Dornan “reentered his residence, closing the door completely.”

Then, as he walked back to his patrol vehicle, Salas “heard a door open and a thumping against the ground behind me,” he wrote in the report. Salas said he turned around to see the dog “sprinting directly toward me. The dog loudly snarled and continued charging toward me.”

Realizing he couldn’t outrun the dog, Salas said in the report, he turned toward the dog and drew his gun before firing.

“At the time of the incident, I felt there was a strongly likelihood that Nicholaus, who was highly intoxicated and emotionally unstable, may have intentionally released the dog from the residence in a manner consistent with using the animal as a weapon against law enforcement personnel, as I previously observed his front door to be completely closed,” Salas wrote in the report.

Dornan was detained that night, the report said, because of his “level of intoxication” and his “visibly distraught and emotional state,” though he was not arrested.

According to the Henderson Police Department’s published deadly force policy, deadly force is allowable “to protect one’s self or another from an animal which an officer reasonably believes may cause great bodily harm if not immediately controlled…”

On Wednesday, Yazmin Beltran, a spokeswoman for the Henderson Police Department, said nobody from the department would be made available to talk about the shooting.

Also on Wednesday, in an email, a Henderson city public records officer said a Review-Journal request for police body camera footage would likely not be filled until December.

‘He was a loving soul’

Eileen Koval, a Las Vegas dog behavior consultant, said she always recommends dog owners have some type of barrier or gate in place at the home, if possible, to keep pets from slipping out unexpectedly.

“I don’t know what type of training officers have in this area, and any dog can be aggressive at any point, but I do think there needs to be more education overall for when these situations occur,” Koval said. “I wouldn’t label any type of breed a more aggressive breed. So much just depends on the individual dog.”

She also said pet owners should always have a plan in place to be able to control their animal if and when certain stressful situations — perhaps a visit from the police or a fire in the home — crop up.

“Always plan to have control of your dog for situations like that,” she said.

Early Wednesday afternoon, Bobowski’s 2-year-old daughter played in the living room of her home, near where she had set up a small memorial for Bruno, complete with a container that contained the dog’s ashes.

She said her children were looking forward to going to Lake Mead with their dogs the weekend Bruno was killed. Bruno, she said, loved the water.

She offered a pile of photos that featured Bruno. In one he was seen in a “Grinch” costume. Another showed him wearing a cowboy hat that read “Sheriff.”

Several showed the dog with Bobowski’s children and one showed his deceased body and the bullet wound to his torso.

“He was a loving soul,” Bobowski said. “He didn’t deserve to die. Don’t get me wrong, he was kind of scary looking, but once you got around him, he would just melt.”

Contact Bryan Horwath at bhorwath@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BryanHorwath on X.