Editor’s note: The video in this story is from an earlier report.

ROME, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — A Rockmart property owner has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against a Cedartown police officer after he allegedly entered her enclosed pasture without a warrant and shot and killed her young pet donkey during a late-night search for a missing person.

According to the complaint filed Sept. 11, 2026, in U.S. District Court, Officer Trenton Ryan Garner and other law enforcement personnel entered Hannah Michelle Israel’s property on Grady Road between late night Aug. 29 and early morning Aug. 30 without her consent or a search warrant.

While searching the pasture with K-9 units and drone assistance, Garner encountered Israel’s small donkey, named “HeeHaw,” and fatally shot the animal, which the lawsuit alleges was tranquil and posed no threat.

The lawsuit states officers left the property without notifying Israel, later calling her in the middle of the night to state the donkey had been “dispatched” without disclosing where the carcass was located. Israel and a minor child had to search the dark pasture on foot to locate the animal’s body.

The suit accuses Garner of Fourth and 14th Amendment violations — including illegal search, unlawful seizure and destruction of property, and deprivation of due process — and seeks compensatory and punitive damages.

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