Body-camera footage released in October 2026 shows a Georgia police officer fatally shooting a family’s miniature donkey during a search for a missing 12-year-old girl. The August 30 encounter has since prompted a federal civil rights lawsuit challenging the officer’s decision to fire.
HeeHaw, a one-year-old miniature donkey, was in a pasture at Elsberry Riding and Farm near Rockmart when officers entered the property shortly after midnight. As the animal approached the search team, another officer attempted to deter him before Cedartown Police Officer Trenton Ryan Garner fired a shot.
Garner maintained that HeeHaw charged toward officers and posed an immediate threat. The donkey’s owner, Hannah Michelle Israel, disputes that account, describing him as a gentle, bottle-raised family pet accustomed to interacting with children.
The lawsuit challenges the officers’ entry onto private property and the killing of HeeHaw. Garner has asked a federal judge to dismiss the case.
Inside The Pasture
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The police body camera footage shared by CBS captures the encounter in the pasture.
The search led officers to the Polk County farm at approximately 12:45 a.m., where a tracking dog had followed a trail through the woods to a gate leading into the pasture. A Rockmart Fire Department drone team assisted from above.
According to Garner’s incident report, the officers were following a fence line when horses became startled and ran away. A K-9 handler then spotted HeeHaw on the side of a hill.
Garner described the donkey as charging toward the team, prompting the Haralson County K-9 officers to retreat. Polk County K-9 handler Thomasson drew his Taser-7 and activated its electrical arc to frighten the animal away.
When HeeHaw continued approaching, Garner drew his department-issued Glock 17 and fired, striking the donkey. HeeHaw turned away from the handler, moved uphill, and collapsed.
The six-minute, 35-second bodycam recording begins without audio but later captures Garner telling dispatch that he fired because the donkey had attempted to attack the team.
The officer’s account remains disputed. Israel maintains that HeeHaw approached out of curiosity, while Garner’s defense argues the animal came within about one body length of the K-9 handler and posed an immediate danger.
Officers found the missing girl safe shortly afterward.
A Fallen Pet
Israel alleges that officers left without telling her where HeeHaw had fallen.
A police supervisor later contacted her and described the animal as having been “dispatched,” but did not identify the location of his body, according to her federal complaint.
Israel and a minor child then searched several acres of dark pasture before finding the miniature donkey’s body.
The Court Fight
On September 11, Israel sued Garner individually in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, alleging violations of her constitutional rights.
The federal complaint raises Fourth Amendment claims involving unlawful search and seizure, along with an alternative Fourteenth Amendment due process claim.
Israel contends that officers entered her enclosed pasture without a warrant or permission and that the circumstances did not justify killing her donkey.
The complaint describes financial losses and emotional distress stemming from the incident. Her lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages, attorney fees, court costs, and interest, to be determined by a jury.
Garner filed a motion to dismiss on October 7, arguing that the pasture was not constitutionally protected against warrantless searches and that the shooting was objectively reasonable.
The officer is also seeking qualified immunity, which can protect government employees from personal civil liability under certain circumstances. Alternatively, he has asked the judge to consider summary judgment after expedited discovery.
The court has not resolved the parties’ competing claims in the materials reviewed.
What Followed
Cedartown Police Chief Jamie Newsome placed Garner on administrative leave following the shooting, while the Georgia Department of Agriculture’s Law Enforcement Division became involved in an outside review.
A final determination from that review has not been independently verified.
Israel organized a GoFundMe campaign that, in a retrieved snapshot, had collected more than $161,000 from about 2,300 donations, surpassing its original $30,000 goal.
She explains that remaining donations will support the farm’s animals and efforts to establish a foundation in HeeHaw’s memory. The money is not intended for her family’s personal expenses.
As of October 14, 2026, Garner’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit remained pending.