Officer Goes on Dangerous In-Store Rampage…For a Squirrel

by Amanda Warren
Activist Post
October 24, 2013

For the second time in two days I have had the opportunity to write about Dollar General store as the scene of a violent crime. Unlike yesterday’s post where a pastor with a conceal-carry pistol saved the life of the Dollar General store staff and the criminal involved, this second incident involved an officer who was tasked with protecting the public, but instead acted as perpetrator of the crime.

This incident which occurred in Mountain City, TN in late September involved former officer Jody Putnam who felt justified in using deadly force in a crowded store when confronted inside with a vicious…and frightening…squirrel.

Property owner Carl Duffield had tried unsuccessfully to remove the frightened creature from the store and reached out to animal control, but that officer was out – so Putnam, who had no animal control experience or common sense, was dispatched instead.

Rather than find a humane trap, Putnam began immediately firing shots from his gun at the squirrel in the back of the crowded store. When that failed to kill something, he wildly hosed the area with pepper spray.

Duffield said:

Shooting back there, of course that should not have been, that should not have happened. Then [he] began to spray it with mace and pepper spray.

But the spray got on more than just the little squirrel:

There was a lot of people that come out and just like me they came out and they were coughing and a hacking it was comical…but I’m sure they didn’t feel that way, the customers that came out.

Traumatized customers who re-entered the store were most likely further horrified to find the dead squirrel under Putnam’s shoe.

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