I ain't getting bit by that, bro
On the night a city celebrated a championship, a woman's joy became the occasion for a fatal encounter at her own door. Los Angeles police, summoned by a neighbor who mistook cheering for screaming, arrived at Marie Marseille's apartment and within moments shot and killed her dog — a two-year-old golden Saint Bernard doodle named Jameson, still wearing his Knicks jersey. The incident raises enduring questions about the thresholds of lethal force, the vulnerability of the domestic sphere to misread urgency, and whether the speed and shape of official transparency can itself become a form of concealment.
- A 911 call reporting screams turned out to be a woman cheering her team to a championship — but police had already arrived armed and on edge.
- Body-camera footage shows the dog barking but never lunging, yet an officer with a drawn weapon fired four times while the owner stood nearby pleading that her pet was not dangerous.
- The image of Marseille sobbing over Jameson's body spread rapidly, turning a single apartment hallway into a flashpoint for public grief and anger over police use of force.
- Mayor Karen Bass directed an investigation, but scrutiny quickly shifted to the LAPD's own conduct in releasing the footage — edited, faces blurred, and unusually fast — in ways veteran journalists said they had never seen before.
- The department's selective transparency is now under as much examination as the shooting itself, with the unedited footage still withheld and accountability still unresolved.
On the night the New York Knicks won the NBA championship, Marie Marseille was celebrating in her Canoga Park apartment when someone called 911 reporting screams. The screams were cheers. By the time officers left, her dog was dead.
Body-camera footage released by the LAPD shows Jameson — a two-year-old golden Saint Bernard doodle in a blue Knicks jersey — barking at officers when they appeared at the door. One officer drew his weapon immediately. His partner noted the dog's size aloud. Marseille moved to contain Jameson, telling the officers he was not aggressive. The dog stepped into the hallway, barked, paused, barked again, and took a step forward. The officer fired four times. Both Marseille and the second officer were standing behind the dog when the shots rang out.
The footage does not show a lunge or an attack — only a startled animal at its owner's door. Questions also emerged about the second officer, who footage suggests may have raised a weapon of his own and appeared to be carrying two pistols during the encounter.
A video of Marseille afterward, holding Jameson's body and sobbing, circulated widely and drew immediate public outcry. Mayor Karen Bass said she had spoken with Police Chief Jim McDonnell about a use-of-force investigation. But the LAPD's handling of the footage has drawn scrutiny of its own: the department released an edited version with officers' faces blurred — something a veteran NBC4 reporter said he had never seen the department do — and did so with unusual speed, while withholding the raw footage entirely.
What began as a misread moment of celebration ended with a pet dead in a hallway and a department's transparency now as much under examination as the force it used.
On the night the New York Knicks won the NBA championship, Marie Marseille was celebrating in her Canoga Park apartment when police arrived at her door. Someone had called 911 reporting screams. What the officers found was a woman's joy—and what followed was the death of her dog.
The Los Angeles Police Department released body-camera footage this week showing the moment officers shot and killed Jameson, Marseille's two-year-old golden Saint Bernard doodle. The dog, dressed in a blue Knicks jersey, had barked at the officers when they arrived on June 13. One officer immediately drew his weapon. "Put your dog away!" he shouted. His partner, watching the animal, said aloud what he was thinking: "That's a big-ass dog." The other officer, gun already drawn, added his own assessment: "I ain't getting bit by that, bro."
Marseille moved toward the door, trying to contain her pet. She told the officers the dog was not aggressive. But Jameson, still wearing his championship jersey, stepped into the hallway. He barked. He paused. He barked again and took a step forward. The officer with the drawn pistol fired four times. Marseille and the officer's partner were both standing behind the dog when the shots were fired.
The footage raises questions about what happened in those seconds. The dog did not lunge. It did not attack. It barked—the behavior of a dog startled by strangers at its owner's door. Yet the officer's response was immediate and lethal. Body-camera images suggest the second officer may have also raised a weapon, and footage indicates he was carrying two pistols during the encounter, one in each hand.
A video of Marseille afterward—sobbing, holding her dead dog—circulated widely. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said she had spoken with Police Chief Jim McDonnell about investigating the use of force. But what has drawn additional scrutiny is how the LAPD chose to release the footage. The department edited the video and blurred the officers' faces, a practice that NBC4 reporter Eric Leonard said he had never seen before in years of reviewing body-camera footage from the department. The raw, unedited video was not released. The speed of the release itself was unusual—faster than the department typically moves—but the decision to obscure the officers' identities while showing everything else raised its own questions about transparency and accountability.
The incident began with a misunderstanding: police responding to what they thought was a woman in distress, arriving to find her celebrating. It ended with a family pet dead in a hallway, and a department's handling of the aftermath now under scrutiny as much as the shooting itself.
Citas Notables
That's a big-ass dog— Officer on body camera
We've been looking at these body-worn videos for years. I don't remember another instance where officers' faces were blurred ever before— NBC4 reporter Eric Leonard
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why did the officer fire so quickly? The dog was barking, but was there any sign it was actually going to attack?
The footage doesn't show an attack. The dog barked, paused, barked again, took a step. That's what a startled dog does. The officer had already decided the dog was a threat before Jameson even left the apartment.
The owner said the dog wasn't aggressive. Did the officers seem to listen to her?
They told her to put the dog away, but she was already trying. She was holding the door. The officer didn't give her time—or maybe he didn't believe her. Either way, the decision to shoot came very fast.
What strikes you most about the video the LAPD released?
That they blurred the officers' faces. In years of body-camera footage, that's never happened before. It suggests the department knew something about this shooting would be controversial, and they wanted to control the narrative.
The dog was wearing a Knicks jersey. Does that detail matter?
It matters because it's real. Jameson wasn't some abstract threat—he was a pet, dressed for a celebration, in his own home. That detail is what makes the video so difficult to watch.
What happens now?
There's an investigation into the use of force. But the bigger question is whether anything changes. A dog is dead. A woman is grieving. And the department released the footage on their own terms.