Henrico police shoot pet as they notify family of son's homicide. As you can see, the report is lavishly illustrated, and spares no detail. It appears that your patient, while performing his mundane duty of notifying one of the humans that her child had been murdered, discharged his weapon into the child's dog. Your patient claimed to have done so out of fear (no doubt of your urging) that the animal posed a threat to the patient's safety.