MPD chief standing by cops amid accusation of home ‘break-in’ after dog complaint

A Minneapolis woman says police officers illegally entered her house in the middle of the night following a complaint about a loose dog. But police say after an hour of door knocking and phone calls, they’d grown concerned about a possible emergency inside while trying to evade an aggressive animal.

Ebony Dobbins says Rocky, her rottweiler, escaped from the north side home that she shares with her partner and three young children just before 1 a.m. on March 25.

When police were unable to wake her, Dobbins, 34, said an officer climbed through her son's bedroom window, walked through their house, and unlocked the front door and let two other officers inside.

“They went downstairs. They woke up my girlfriend. And then they had her come upstairs. Then they all came in my room,” Dobbins said. “They woke me up and forced all of us into my living room.”

Dobbins spoke at a news conference Monday alongside Michelle Gross with Communities United Against Police Brutality.

Gross released doorbell camera video where officers can be seen ringing Dobbins’ bell then immediately running away in what Gross described as “playing ding-dong-ditch.”

“This conduct is unlawful, and as a result this family is traumatized,” Gross said.

But in a police report that Gross released along with the video, officer Brian Peebles writes that he and his colleagues were concerned that there was an emergency in the home because most of the lights were on, Dobbins’ vehicle was in the driveway and no one responded to repeated loud knocking.

Peebles writes that he ran to his squad car after ringing Dobbins’ doorbell because he was trying to avoid the loose dog.

“The dog occasionally would disappear into the back of the address allowing me to knock loudly on the door and ring the doorbell until retreating to my squad car anticipating the dog's return. There was no answer at the door upon multiple attempts,” Peebles wrote.

In a statement Monday, MPD said officers “spent more than an hour” trying to rouse Dobbins and others inside the home by phone, door knocking, and shining bright lights while simultaneously trying to avoid the “uncontrolled, aggressive dog.”

The department said the officers entered “through an open window to avoid causing damage from a forced entry” after observing sleeping children who they were concerned were unresponsive. MPD denies Dobbins’ claims that the officers entered her house with their weapons drawn.

Police Chief Brian O'Hara said that he reviewed the officers’ body-worn camera footage and supports their actions.

No injuries were reported. Dobbins said she retrieved her dog from Minneapolis Animal Control later the same day.

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