A video posted on social media showing a Morgantown Police officer shooting an opossum drew criticism, but the shooting was determined a mercy killing.
Heather Moore, who lives in the Woodburn neighborhood, said she called the non-emergency 911 number after finding the animal lying in the street bleeding from the jaw with an eye injury.
Moore said she tried to find an animal control number for the city but couldn’t.
When MPD Officer Holder arrived, the opossum was under a vehicle with obvious injuries to its face, according to interim Chief Eric Powell.
Holder used a 2X4 to move the animal from under the vehicle into the grass, shot it in the chest then and disposed of it, Powell said. Moore used the board earlier to poke the opossum to see if it was alive.
“From time to time we are asked to respond to animal complaints. Some involve severely injured animals or animals that appear to be dangerous to the general public,” Powell said. “If an officer responds to these calls and determines that the animal is injured beyond saving or a direct threat to citizens they are authorized to dispatch the animal as long as it can be done in a safe way.”
The video on social media is 10 seconds long and only shows the incident for a few seconds before the shooting. Some people have said the MPD officer was “trigger happy” but Moore said that’s not true.
She told The Dominion Post Holder was very professional and called a supervisor to get permission before shooting the opossum.
After the animal was dead, Moore got a shovel and trash bag and Holder shoveled the opossum into the bag while she held it, then he threw the bag away for her.
Moore thanked Holder on Facebook and said after the video of the shooting was posted on Twitter, she has been harassed over the animal’s death.
She said she’s OK with taking the heat but hopes Holder doesn’t get in trouble.
