A homeless Iraq War veteran was reportedly wrongfully arrested by abusive Gastonia police officers in North Carolina. The officers also tased his VA-provided service dog. Even though witnesses say Rohrer wasn’t armed or harassing passerby, the encounter ended with his arrest, and eventually, his battle buddy’s death.
According to reports, Joshua Graham Rohrer was simply standing on a median near a Gastonia shopping center with his dog Sunshine on Oct. 13 when a 911 caller contacted police.
Rohrer deployed to Kuwait and Iraq from October 2004 to November 2005 with the Kentucky Army National Guard. He suffers from service-connected post-traumatic stress disorder, and his 2-year-old Belgian Malinois Sunshine was his Veterans Affairs-prescribed treatment.
Regarding the incident, the Army Times reported Rohrer as saying:
I was just standing there, waving at people, when this lady waved me over and offered me money. I was accused of falsely using my dog to get money from people and asking people for money but that’s not true.
Rohrer added that as soon as he took the money offered to him, the police drove up, “aggressively, with the lights on and everything.”
According to the Army Times, “Rohrer argued that he wasn’t doing anything wrong, and the officer on scene called for back-up. Police asked Rohrer to produce a valid state ID, which Rohrer said he didn’t have, stating that he only had a VA card.”
Justyn Huffman and Nydia Conley witnessed Rohrer’s arrest, telling local TV station WCNC that they saw officers surround Rohrer during the Oct. 13 encounter.
“The officer asked him for his ID,” Huffman said. “He wasn’t moving fast enough so he tried to reach into his pocket to get his ID. They slammed him up against the car and they put cuffs on him.”
That’s when Sunshine jumped up on the hood trying to help Rohrer. He said: “She was just doing her job, licking me and trying to calm me down,” Rohrer said. “The cops started yelling at her and me, telling me to get her to settle down but they wouldn’t allow me to physically get control of her.”
The Army Times added:
Rohrer said Sunshine nipped at one of the officer’s ankles as she was hopping down from the hood of the car, prompting the officer to tase her.
“We’re out here screaming, ‘Don’t shoot the dog! Don’t shoot the dog!’” Huffman said.
Huffman said Sunshine ran to a nearby store with one of the taser prongs dangling off her body while police took Rohrer to the back of the car and “slammed him on the pavement.”
“It was really traumatizing,” Conley said. “I’ve never seen anything like that.”
Rohrer was arrested on charges of solicitation and resisting arrest.
As he was taken away by police for booking, The Army Times notes Rohrer said he begged the officers to let Sunshine come with him. He reportedly cited a North Carolina statute that affords people with disabilities the right to keep their service dogs with them, especially in cases where the individual’s health is at risk.
“They laughed at me,” he said. “I begged them to bring her to me or to give her to an officer to take with them but they wouldn’t listen, they didn’t care.”
Rohrer never saw Sunshine again. While his friend and fellow veteran Dave Dowell was able to get his hands on the service dog that night, she later slipped her leash and ran away while Rohrer was still in jail.
He was released the next day after posting bail and facing more insensitive treatment by the police, saying they laughed at him and continually told him how horrible of a person he was, Rohrer claimed. He immediately began searching for his dog. After nearly two days, Sunshine was found in nearby Shelby, where Dowell lives.
She had been hit by a car and killed.
After learning of his dog’s death, Rohrer had a PTSD episode and tried throwing himself in front of cars. He had to be treated at the VA Medical Center in Asheville for injuries suffered during his breakdown.
The Gastonia Police Department told Military Times that although Rohrer will go to court for the charges against him, the department is now looking into the incident to “determine if the conduct of our officers was appropriate.”
The Army Times noted that Rohrer’s case was recently accepted by the Veterans Justice Outreach program, which works “to identify justice-involved Veterans and contact them through outreach, in order to facilitate access to VA services at the earliest possible point.”
While the program doesn’t provide legal counsel, it points veterans in the right direction.
A Facebook group – “Support Joshua Rohrer and Sunshine Rae” announced that a protest will take place in front of the Gastonia Police Department Oct. 29.
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AmericanActionNews.com
That was a bad scene…..I know the cops have a tough job and I’m certainly sympathetic but it just goes to show you that sometimes things might not be exactly what they appear and you have to be careful before jumping to conclusions. Bummer all around
if proven true, all of those Officers, should be Fired
I Agree!
not only fired but prosecuted and Never hold a job in law enforcement
Charged with unlawful assault and fired . Bunch of total jerks and then wonder why they get a bad rap.
Why are so many cops bums?
I’ll TELL you Why, and I’ve seen a LOT of it and have even known Several that I went to school with that became cops. Most of them weren’t “cool enough” or attractive enough or the somewhat appealing, popular kind of people that make it in the private sector, so they end up, often CHOOSING Law Enforcement, because they are GIVEN Authority and THAT alone makes them feel pretty good. THEN, it’s just another form of Abuse of Power when they Can’t or Don’t control it. A Very SAD but TRUE part of Life. HUMAN NATURE.
WHAT kind of SICK people would treat Another Human Being this way? IF this is pretty much Factual, these Deranged sons of b tches should be BEATEN to within an inch of death, THEN Fined a handsome sum and OF COURSE be Fired WITH FULL DISCLOSURE OF THIS HEINOUS ACTION ON THEIR PERMANENT RECORDS. These Evil bastards are not FIT to be members of a Society__ they just PROVED IT.
Functionally small penises?
I don’t find “so may cops bums” but boy do they take a lot of guff from ungrateful people.
A big problem is that there a number of vets that have fallen through the cracks because of addiction and often their only friends are the caregivers at the VA.
I guess I’m an enabler because I often cough up a few coins when I see these ragged guy panhandling.
Not bums, punks.
Power
I was a cop and whaat the cops did was way wrong and what abunch of cowards. You don’t have to be assholes to a guy you may think is panhandling. You could be nice and figure it out. The orginial cop(s) were total assholes, if this is true and they killed a dog and nearly killed a man (because he almost killed himself). No cops havde a tough job but these assholes were way wrong and should be fired.. all of them
As a retired cop (retired 20+ years ago), when men were still men, listen to me my brothers and sisters. You cops better wake up fast (if it isn’t already too late) because the broader public is about to turn on you with a unimaginable vengeance if this kind of crap (including Covid) continues across the country.
I hate to say “I told you so!;” however, it sounds like Gastonia has a “Rodney King” type incident on their hands and the population wants to defund the Gestapo!
2% of cops are scumbags.
96% of cops know who the scumbags are.
They do the safe thing and keep their mouths shut
That is one side of the story.
What is the other side?
That Joe Biden does nothing for our Vets?
If this story is true those rotten cops need their rears handed to them. They killed a service dog needlessly and that in itself is unacceptable. Why are police acting luke a bunch of jerk bags. Take the authority you have within the law and use it wisely. It makes ke sick when I hear of crap like this. Their day of reckoning is coming in the form of karma.
They are pretty typical cops, so self important.
This stinks of a sting operation! It gives law enforcement officers a really bad name . I’m a vet and am horrified at how some in this nation express their gratitude for this man’s sacrifices. Big , brave bullies.
Investigate what prompted their actions and who initiated it .
What gives law enforcement officers a really bad name is really bad law enforcement officers.
There are so many bad law enforcement officers.
All law enforcement officers know who they are.
So few good law enforcement officers have the courage to act.
Now if it was a person of color or somebody burning an American flag or holding a BLM flag, then the Gastonia police would have approached him and taken a knee with him like Colin Kaepernick.
Should Colin Kaepernick take a Derrick Chauvin knee?
North Carolina has gone Woke.
North Carolina is down one bums dog.
Rename North Carolina to North Corea.
Trumponlina.
I was so very moved by this story of this VET AND HIS DOG SUNSHINE
COMFORT IS NEEDED
WE ARE ALL GOD’S FAMILY
Which God?
All the cops did was to take out the garbage.
THIS CALLS FOR A LAW SUIT IMMEDIATELY AND SOME LAWYER IN THAT CITY NEEDS TO DO A FREE JOB ON THESE STUPID COPS ON THE WAY THEY HANDLED THIS CALL. BEING A COP YEARS AGO WE WOULD NEVER ACTED LIKE THESE OVER ACTING IDIOTS DID! WHERE IS THERE HUMAN INTEREST IN CASES’S LIKE THIS??? THIS VET WAS LEGIT AND SO WAS HIS DOG COMPANION NOW DECEASED THANKS TO THESE UN WORTHY COPS!
Under Trump cops thought they could do what ever they want.
Biden is putting cops in jail.
Nothing to see here folks, just another case of cops doing what they are paid to do, taking out the garbage.
It’s time to hold our police accountable It’s time for justice for all.
Somethings wrong her. The police need to do an investigation that includes civilian veterans to determine exactly what happened. AND, get that man a new service dog immediately.
Nothing wrong here.
The cops are taking out the garbage.
Trump Made America Great.
I respect the law but I have seen too many bad cops and until things like this become less and less things may take longer to change.
I normally support the police but this is the most disgusting thing I have heard in some time. So all the BLM matter riots and attacks were all ok by the police who stood by?? All the looting and burning and everything else, even police attacked directly and they looked the other way. Now a veteran down on his luck gets beaten and his dog tasered?? All the guy did was accept a few bucks? Who did that veteran hurt that he should be treated this way?? Totally unwarranted and disgusting. Treating our veterans like this is NOT ok!!!
Bad optics NC & for any PD
Veteran abuse MUST end
AND NOW YOU KNOW WHY I REFUSE TO CONTRIBUTE TO ALL THOSE “Back The Blue” groups. I’ve seen far too much of this stuff out of the police – and we are one step away from having cops acting like those in Australia who gas and pepper spray little kids for not wearing masks and who body slam pregnant women for violating the latest COVID rule. 62% of the nation’s sheriffs offices have taken oaths and issued statements refusing to enforce these legally questionable COVID rules, or to cooperate with “sanctuary p9licies”, or to violate the 2nd Amendment – but I have not been able to identify a single police department (big city or small) which has similarly declared. I will happily stand behind our police if I can be assured that they will stand beside me. They’ve not convinced me of that.
I’m sure race had something to do with it
They should be tasered until the batteries die!!! Then fired without any access to benefits!!! Use the benefits to get the Vet a new service dog!
That is horrible!