Georgia officer who shot, killed HeeHaw the donkey will not face criminal charges, DA says – CBS News

Georgia officer who shot, killed HeeHaw the donkey will not face criminal charges, DA says  CBS News

The Georgia officer who shot and killed HeeHaw the donkey will not face criminal charges, the district attorney says. But the donkey's owner is continuing her fight in court.In a Nov. 2 report, Tallapoosa Judicial Circuit District Attorney Jaeson Smith said Cedartown Officer Trenton Garner reasonably acted to protect another officer during the encounter.Garner shot the donkey shortly after midnight Aug. 30 while officers were searching for a missing 12-year-old girl in Polk County. The girl was later found safe.Smith's report draws on a Georgia Department of Agriculture investigation, witness interviews, dispatch records and body-camera video.According to Smith's review, officers backed away as HeeHaw approached. Another officer activated a Taser's electrical arc, but the donkey continued toward him, getting approximately an arm's length away before Garner fired once."After a review of Investigator Cruce's entire investigation and all evidence, Garner's actions do not sustain criminal liability," Smith wrote.The prosecutor's conclusion differed from an Agriculture Department investigator's assessment that Garner had violated criminal statutes, according to the report.

Smith said that assessment omitted information important to evaluating whether the officers reasonably feared injury.HeeHaw's owner, Hannah Michelle Israel, has said the donkey was gentle and had never behaved aggressively. Smith's report cited other witnesses who described previous aggressive encounters with the animal.Israel's attorneys challenged the report's findings and the credibility of some witnesses.