‘Tragic, for both families’: Fight over dog in rural Petaluma ends in animal’s death

It’s been three months since Nick Frey, a Novato police officer, shot and killed his neighbors’ dog during an emotional confrontation at his Skillman Lane property in rural Petaluma – and today the dog’s owners are still seeking accountability as they consider their next move.

“It’s really hard to relive it,” said dog owner Anna Henry, who along with her husband Phil Henry is considering what actions to take against Frey, their next-door neighbor.

But Frey – a sergeant in the Novato Police Department who leads the department’s SWAT team and is its de-escalation expert – said the shooting was self-defense.

The incident began on an otherwise peaceful Sunday, Sept. 18, as the Henrys’ young grandchildren played outside near the front gate. At some point they inadvertently let the dog out of the gate, setting off a chain of events.

Several of those events were caught on video, in footage recorded by the Freys’ doorbell cameras and shared with the Argus-Courier by Frey’s attorney. (Warning: Some may find the video to be disturbing.)

In the footage, as the Henrys’ dog first escapes their yard through the front gate, the grandchildren’s voices are heard trying to coax it back.

Instead the dog runs next door and begins chasing chickens, some of which are caught and killed. Anna Henry, 71, arrives hurriedly with a leash, yelling “No, Huck!” But Huck continues to attack the birds, and screaming is heard.

That’s when Frey comes out of the house with a handgun.

Next comes a terrible moment. Henry has finally gotten her dog on a leash, and is standing near Frey in his front yard as he yells, “Oh my goodness, those are my children’s birds!” But the dog lunges away again, escaping her grasp as she topples to the ground.

As the dog runs out of view of the camera, Frey’s wife Jennie Frey comes into the frame and screams, “Nick, kill him! God damn it, kill that f---ing dog!”

Frey, now mostly obscured from view, fires three shots. Henry, sitting on the ground, lowers her head.

Huck died from his wounds later that day.

The Henrys said they had clashed with Frey over their dog before, and that last summer he outright said he’d kill the dog if it went onto his property.

“He said if he ever comes over here he’s never coming home,” Anna Henry said.

They also said they were diligent in trying to keep Huck, a 4-year-old rescue dog of a breed called black mouth cur, inside their fenced yard, and had more fencing built to contain him. But on that day their grandchildren, ages 5 to 10, accidentally let him out, Anna Henry said.

“It was just very, very accidental,” she said.

“I recognize that it was an accident,” said Frey’s attorney, Alison Berry Wilkinson. However, she said, “It doesn’t mean that they weren’t still responsible for the control of that dog.”

“The shooting was lawful – it was tragic, for both families – but it was lawful,” Wilkinson said.

The shooting itself is obscured in the video footage. Immediately afterward, Frey can be heard saying to Henry that the dog was lunging at him and that he felt threatened. That’s not what Anna Henry saw.

“He said that, but that was obviously not the case,” she said.

“I had the dog on a leash. And a white chicken in the distance flapped its wings and triggered the dog again. … He went towards the chicken, and that’s when (Frey) shot the dog,” she said.

“He went past Nick, and Nick shot him in the back of the head and in the back when he was going away from him,” added Phil Henry.

But in Frey’s account, as described by Wilkinson, “The dog turns and launches itself in the direction of Nick Frey. … Now this dog is not just satisfied with going after chickens, now it’s going after people.”

In this telling, faced with a “vicious dog at this point in time, coming directly at him,” Frey had no choice but to shoot to protect himself and his family.

Relations between the neighbors haven’t improved since then. The Freys’ children, who sometimes used to go next door to play with the Henrys’ grandchildren, don’t anymore.

In October, the Freys put out a Halloween display considered by the Henrys to be intentionally hurtful: a plastic dog skeleton, set up close to the spot where Huck was shot. That prompted the Henrys to seek a restraining order.

“Every detail makes it worse and worse,” said Madeline Liebreich, the Henrys’ attorney.

Liebreich said she recommended her clients file a civil suit alleging “intentional infliction of emotional distress, possibly animal cruelty, and maybe negligence too. But their goal is not to get money for themselves. … They just want him to be punished.”

Punishments could include Frey receiving a psychological evaluation, being suspended, and not being allowed to use a firearm, she said. She added the Henrys have two years to decide whether to file.

Asked whether Frey’s actions in the video were concerning or reflected poorly on her officers, Novato police Chief Beth Johnson said there were extenuating circumstances not shown in the video, but that she couldn’t discuss them due to strict confidentiality laws.

“The department began an administrative review immediately that day,” Johnson said. But she was unable to share the results of that review.

“I can tell you that this was a traumatic incident for absolutely everyone involved.”

There’s more to the story, including what happened to Huck after he was shot – he didn’t die right away – and the veterinarian who said after seeing the dog that the bullet wounds showed he was hit from behind. But the Henrys are ambivalent about how much they want to go into it.

“Honestly, they’re just having a hard time processing it,” Liebreich said.

For her part, Anna Henry spoke about putting it behind her. “I have to move on with my life as well,” she said. “It’s just incredibly hard right now, with the holidays. We miss our dog.”

Don Frances is editor of the Petaluma Argus-Courier. Reach him at don.frances@arguscourier.com.