‘It wasn't his fault': Owner of dog killed by Miami-Dade cop speaks as suit moves forward

Editor's note: The bodycam video above can be distressing to some. Viewer discretion is advised.

The owner of a dog that was shot and killed by Miami-Dade Police nearly four years ago is speaking out after a federal appeals court said his lawsuit against the officer who pulled the trigger can proceed.

Sylvan Plowright had called 911 to report someone trespassing on vacant property near his home back on Oct. 5, 2020.

Officers Sergio Cordova and Leordanis Rondon responded to the house, where they encountered Plowright and his American bulldog, Niles.

Police body camera footage captured the tense encounter, as police ordered Plowright to put his hands in the air and to grab Niles.

"Get the dog, I'm gonna shoot it!" one officer yells, as Niles moves closer. "Get the dog!"

An officer pulls out a Taser as Niles continues to bark and walk toward the officers.

"Pick him up before I Tase him!" the officer yells in the video.

Moments later, the sound of the Taser being fired is heard before multiple gunshots.

Niles can be heard yelping as Plowright is overcome with emotion.

"I called the police! I live here, this is my house!" Plowright says.

"I told you to pick him up, how many times did I have to tell you?" an officer says.

According to court records, Rondon was the officer who used the Taser, while Cordova fired the fatal gunshots.

"For my dog, it wasn't his fault," Plowright told NBC6 in an interview this week, adding that he was frozen in fear during the encounter.

“I was approached in a very hostile way that I could not defend myself or my dog as I was asked to get your dog but the way I was asked to get my dog with profanity in such a hostile way, I could not move," he said.

Plowright said he's still in emotional distress over the loss of Niles.

"Never would have expected that I would not have him by my side anymore," he said.

Earlier this month, a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned key parts of a district judge’s decision that dismissed a lawsuit filed by Plowright after the shooting.

The appeals court said Plowright can pursue civil claims against Cordova for unreasonable seizure of property under the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

While appellate courts in other parts of the country have issued similar decisions, the panel said it was a first-of-its-kind ruling in the 11th Circuit, which hears cases from Florida, Georgia and Alabama.

“According to Plowright, Cordova came to his house after he called 911, held him at gunpoint, and fatally shot his dog in front of him without justification, even though the dog had been ‘incapacitated’ by a taser and was ‘incapable of harming anyone,’” said the 24-page ruling, written by Judge Jill Pryor and joined by Chief Judge William Pryor and Judge Stanley Marcus.

Plowright had filed a lawsuit that named as defendants Cordova, Rondon, Miami-Dade County and then-Miami-Dade police chief Alfredo Ramirez. A district judge dismissed the case but the appellate court's ruling allowed the lawsuit to move forward against Cordova but not the other defendants.

The lower court concluded that Cordova was entitled to what is known as qualified immunity “because he did not violate any clearly established right when he shot Niles,” the appellate court's ruling said.

But the appeals court disagreed, finding that Plowright adequately alleged a violation of his Fourth Amendment right to protection from unreasonable seizure of property. It said Florida law “is clear that domestic animals are their owners’ personal property.”

“Second, shooting a domestic animal undoubtedly interferes with its owner’s possessory interests, implicating the same analysis applied to an official’s destruction of other forms of property,” the ruling said. “To be constitutionally permissible, then, Cordova’s decision to shoot and kill Niles must have been reasonable.”

With the appeal about whether the lawsuit should have been dismissed before potentially going to trial, the panel said the case is at a stage “where we must accept the factual allegations in Plowright’s complaint as true. When we do, we conclude that a reasonable officer in Cordova’s position would not have believed he was in imminent danger when he shot Niles.”

In a brief statement Friday, Miami-Dade Police said they can't comment on pending litigation.

Steadman Stahl, president of the South Florida Police Benevolent Association, said the two officers were cleared of wrongdoing and didn't know before the dog was shot that Plowright was the homeowner who called police.

"They confronted a subject, and while they’re dealing with the subject an aggressive dog comes around, they are heard on the body cameras telling him 'get the dog, get the dog, take care of the dog,' he did not, the dog came out, one officer used a Taser, it did not work, second officer was forced to discharge his firearm," Stahl said. "You can’t let the dog just sit there and attack you and bite others, that’s what we’re trained to do, we’re trained to stop that kind of stuff."

Plowright said he doesn't want what happened to him to happen to other pet owners.

"I don't think that it should ever happen to anyone else and I would not want it to happen to anyone else," he said.