Nikita Smith and Kevin Thomas had been living in a house on Detroit's west side since November 2015 — an abandoned house they had occupied, according to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit's later opinion in their case. They brought three dogs with them: Debo, a nine-year-old pit bull; Smoke, a seven-year-old Rottweiler; and Mama, a seventeen-month-old pit bull who was pregnant. None of the three was licensed under Detroit's city code.
A neighbor called the narcotics hotline to report that marijuana was being sold from the house. On January 11, 2016, Officer Wawrzyniak and a confidential informant made a $10 controlled buy there. Asked whether there were dogs inside, the informant said he "thought he heard a small dog."
Three days later, Officers Gaines, Howell, Morrison, Paul and Wawrzyniak and Sergeant Harris came to execute the search warrant. They knocked and announced, heard no answer, heard dogs barking, and breached the door with a battering ram. Gaines testified that the officers did not change their plan after hearing the dogs because they were worried narcotics would be flushed.
Smith, the only occupant home, testified that she called out that she was securing the dogs, put Debo and Mama in the basement — pushing a stove across the doorless doorway — and left Smoke shut in the bathroom. She said Debo pushed past the stove and was standing beside her when Morrison fired. The officers described a "vicious" grey pit bull charging at them; Morrison testified he fired one shotgun round at Debo's legs, and Gaines then shot Debo seven times. Debo died next to Smith.
Morrison cracked open the bathroom door, saw Smoke, and described a growling dog about to attack. Officers testified Smoke became wedged between the door and the vanity and that they fired through the door; Paul said he later shot Smoke in the head "to put it out of its misery." Smith testified Smoke was not aggressive and never got his head through the door, and that the officers discussed whether to shoot the dog before firing. Her federal complaint, as reported by Reason, quotes an officer asking, "Should we do that one, too?" Smith, by then handcuffed in the living room, did not see Mama shot; Paul testified she charged up the basement stairs and that he fired four or five shotgun rounds. Officers recovered 25.8 grams of marijuana.
Smith was arrested on a misdemeanor marijuana charge that was dismissed when the officers failed to appear to testify. Reason reported her car was seized under civil forfeiture.
Internal investigations concluded the shootings were justified. A federal district judge threw out the lawsuit in 2017, reasoning that unlicensed dogs were contraband. In October 2018 the Sixth Circuit reversed as to Morrison and Gaines and sent the case back for further proceedings — a ruling that the claims may go forward, not a finding of liability — holding that "just as the police cannot destroy every unlicensed car or gun on the spot, they cannot kill every unlicensed dog on the spot." The opinion is marked "NOT RECOMMENDED FOR PUBLICATION." In May 2019 Detroit agreed to pay $60,000 to settle, a payment that admits no liability. Reason, the only news organisation found to have covered the raid, reported that supervisors reviewing 40 Detroit "destruction of animal" reports found officers within department guidelines in every one.