"It has been very hard on the family, especially on my two boys," said Jesus Serna about the loss of his Rottweiler named Daisy. "It's heartbreaking. She was not just a pet. She was a part of the family."
Serna spoke out alongside attorney Tim Scott at a news conference Tuesday morning in Riverside. He said the incident has left his family shaken.
"My kids are scared to be there... They don't know what's going to happen. They don't know if they're going to come around again," Serna said.
The incident occurred May 4 in unincorporated San Bernardino. Surveillance video shows deputies walking up a driveway and looking into the backyard, where another dog, Raven, could be seen. The deputies then leave but return about two minutes later, when one deputy enters the yard.
As the Rottweiler approached, video showed the deputy pulling out his firearm and then shooting the dog.
Scott said it is unclear why deputies were at the home.
"Apparently there was either a report of a stolen car, or they saw a stolen car that was in the neighborhood that was nearby the home but wasn't on the premises. And so we're truly at a loss," he said.
He criticized the deputies' actions and said they may have violated constitutional protections.
"It appears based on everything we know that they just let themselves into a backyard with no warrant, no emergency - in clear violation of decades of constitutional law," Scott said.
Scott added that key questions remain unanswered.
"It's one of the things that we're most interested in finding out is why in the world they thought that it was OK or lawful to go into the backyard. This is very basic constitutional law. You cannot go into a fenced backyard absent a warrant or some sort of an emergency situation," he said.
Scott said they have not yet filed a claim or lawsuit related to the incident.
A spokesperson for the San Bernardino County sheriff's department confirmed that the deputy did not have a search warrant.
They said the deputy entered the property because he was conducting an administrative investigation after a stolen vehicle had been reported to be at the exact address of the home.
The deputy who shot and killed the dog remains at work, pending the outcome of an internal affairs investigation.