A Pinellas County family wants answers after a deputy shot and killed the family dog, Lily.
"I woke up to rapid fire gunshots," said Lisa McCubbin.
She and her husband Mark walked outside to find the 2-year-old dog limping and bleeding on the porch.
"The deputies said they needed to speak with us because our dog had been shot," McCubbin said.
Deputies were responding to a domestic disturbance at a home across the street when they say the dog got loose from the backyard fence.
A spokesperson for the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office says the deputy shot Lily because she charged at officers and bared her teeth. The deputy said he felt like he was in danger.
"I don't really know, I just feel like that's excessive. Now she's gone," said Mark McCubbin.
The McCubbins are devastated, calling the dog a friendly soul. But it doesn't actually belong to them.
They were keeping Lily as a favor to their daughter, who is living overseas with her husband who is serving in the Army. They had to break the news to her over the phone.
Lisa McCubbin said the dog was a rescue, who was "more afraid than anything."
The couple wants the sheriff's office to answer to what happened to make sure it doesn't happen again.
A spokesperson for the sheriff's office says deputies are authorized to fire their weapons on an animal whenever they feel they, or someone else, are in imminent danger. It is decided on a case by case basis.