Hawaii woman's dog shot, killed at Honolulu airport

A deputy interviewed Leisha Ramos and her boyfriend Jadd Matsuda after the killing of Ramos' dog at Honolulu airport Tuesday. (KHON-TV)

A heartbroken woman is demanding to know why an airport security officer had to shoot and kill her dog in Hawaii this week.

Kaiele, a 2-year-old pit bull, was shot in the head Tuesday evening at Honolulu International Airport. Leisha Ramos says she was holding her 5-month-old baby and was trying unsuccessfully to hold the dog when he was shot.

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“I was just in shock,” Ramos said. “He was such a sweetheart. He never attacked anybody.”

Ramos told KHON-TV she and her boyfriend Jadd Matsuda flew in from Big Island. Kaiele was tied to a tree. She said the officer came up to them as they were putting luggage in the car.

She said the officer told them the dog didn’t belong there and they had to leave. She said he took out his gun.

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“My boyfriend was telling him, ‘What are you going to do? Shoot my dog?’ And my dog was chained,” Ramos told the station.

She said the chain broke and she held onto the other end.

“I’m holding him, holding (my baby) at the same time,” she said. “Finally, he just pulls. He’s running to my boyfriend to see if he’s okay. He gets shot. He wasn’t running aggressively. His tail was still wagging.”

Ramos said Kaiele was running to her boyfriend, not the officer.

She said after the shooting the officer called over the radio that shots were fired and walked away.

“That’s all he did, walked away, and I’m screaming, ‘You shot my dog!’, trying to hold his head up from bleeding, but he died instantly. I thought he got tased or something. I didn’t think it was an actual handgun,” Ramos said.

The officer told the station over the phone that he was just doing his job, and that “I’m terribly sorry that you lost that dog.” KHON did not identify the officer.

The Department of Public Safety confirmed Wednesday that an investigation is underway but did not release further details.

”It would be premature to release findings until the investigation is complete,” the department said in a statement.

The officer’s employer, Securitas Security Services, did not respond to questions about the incident.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.