The Wake County Sheriff's Office is investigating the actions of a deputy who entered a home and shot a dog in trying to serve a civil process warrant.
That deputy is on administrative leave, but the dog, 9-year-old Zelda is dead and her family in mourning.
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"I believe that's a violation. He had no right to enter my home," homeowner Paige Briggs said.
The deputy claims Zelda bit him, and he shot and killed her.
But Briggs noted he had to be inside her home to trigger the encounter.
"Our dog Zelda is confined to the kitchen," Briggs pointed out. "You would have to open a door to even get to her."
Security video shows the deputy doing just that -- entering the Briggs home on Lord Berkley Road. No people were home at the time.
Briggs said she was out of town, her husband at work, and their four kids at school when the deputy walked through their unlocked front door.
"There are issues with the deputy entering," agreed Lee Turner, a retired Raleigh police officer turned defense attorney.
"You cannot fault a dog for defending his own residence to someone he has never seen before."
After he shot Zelda, the deputy called for backup. He explained to other deputies and officers with Raleigh Police Department that he thought the home had been the scene of a break-in.
The Briggs' surveillance video captured that conversation as well.
"There were some doors open," the deputy says, "Initially I am thinking things in weird areas, unkept, made me think a break-in."
Turner told WRAL News that the "Community Caretaking Doctrine" allows law enforcement officers to enter a private residence "if there is a threat to someone or public safety."
But he doesn't think this case qualifies.
"The door being ajar in this case, the house disheveled, I don't think that qualifies for that," Turner said.
Briggs told WRAL News that it's not unusual for the house to be a mess, lights on and doors unlocked with four kids and a lot of rushing around, but she says the deputy had no right to enter the home.
"The dog let him know she was there," Briggs said. "The dog couldn't have got to him if he wouldn't have sought her out."