Marie Marseille is such a passionate New York Knicks fan, she rattles off the names of 1990s players as if she were watching them just yesterday at Madison Square Garden.
“John Starks, oh my gosh, don’t even get me started,” she said. “I loved the ’90s. I loved it. They should have won: ’94, ’99. Latrell, Ewing, Starks. Grandmama. Charles Oakley.”
But Ms. Marseille, 44, is so anxiety-wracked that she can’t even watch big games. As the Knicks played on Saturday night, with the first championship of her lifetime one win away, she found ways to distract herself at home in Los Angeles, a long way from where she grew up in Rockland County, N.Y.
She cleaned her apartment. She did school work, watched a Lifetime movie. She took Jameson, her 2-year-old golden saint berdoodle, who was wearing his blue-and-orange Knicks shirt, for a walk.
Occasionally, she went online and checked the score. Her son texted updates at the end of each quarter. Late in the game, she began querying her smart device, Alexa.
Then, once the last seconds ticked off in San Antonio, her mother called from New York to start spreading the news:
Game over. Knicks win.
“Oh my God!” she screamed. “I can’t believe this! Ahhh! Oh my God! I can’t believe this, the Knicks won! Oh my God, the Knicks won!”
About half an hour later, there was a knock at the door.
Two police officers were standing in the hallway. A neighbor had called in a report of a “possible domestic disturbance,” apparently mistaking Ms. Marseille’s joyous outburst as a cry for help.
As Ms. Marseille tried to slide past her door to speak with the officers in the outdoor hallway, Jameson slipped out. Suddenly, she heard two gunshots and saw an officer pointing his gun at Jameson. A shell casing hit her foot, and the smell of gunpowder filled the hallway.
Jameson, on the ground, was still alive, his Knicks shirt bloodied. She ran over and draped herself over him, calling out his nickname. “Jamo!” she said. “Jamo! Jamo!”
“I watched him take his last breath,” Ms. Marseille said in an interview on Wednesday.
The Los Angeles Police Department issued a news release this week saying that officers had responded to a radio call for a “screaming woman.” As they spoke with Ms. Marseille, Jameson was barking, the police said, and officers asked her to secure the dog. Then, according to the department, the dog charged at one of the officers.
Jameson was a beloved figure in his apartment complex in Canoga Park, a tidy suburban neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley.
Sofia Wolowitsch, who lives downstairs, described Jameson as “so kind, so friendly.” When Ms. Wolowitsch and her husband, Simion, lost one of their two dogs last year, their surviving dog, a Shih Tzu named Cookie, fell into a depression. Jameson, she said, could sense that and became a great comfort to her.
The spot where he died was adorned on Wednesday with bouquets of flowers, stuffed animals and candles.
One neighbor left a note: “Jameson was the sweetest boy. Seeing him in the hallway would always brighten my day. His little mop of curly hair on the top of his head made me smile every time. I was lucky to know him.”
Another left a message for Ms. Marseille: “We’re sorry for your loss. Your pain is ours, too.”
Soon, the circle of compassion widened, after a video taken by a neighbor of Ms. Marseille on the ground leaning over Jameson’s body began circulating on social media. She and her family heard from people across the country and from all over the world — Scotland, Kenya, the Netherlands, France. They offered love, and, in some cases, money. Soon, a GoFundMe campaign had raised more than $170,000.
Ms. Marseille, a nurse who is studying for a master’s degree in public health, grew up in a family of die-hard Knicks fans. Her brother, as a 6-foot-8 forward, played basketball professionally in Malta and Turkey and works in security for the Knicks. He also coaches in a youth summer league sponsored by the team.
She said some of the GoFundMe money will pay for cremating Jameson’s remains, once the police return his body to them. She may use some of the money to pay for a lawyer — several have reached out offering their services — to sue the city and the Los Angeles Police Department. And she hopes to set up a nonprofit in Jameson’s name to help rescue dogs.
Jeremiah Garcia, Ms. Marseille’s son, was at his girlfriend’s house nearby and was on FaceTime with his mother celebrating the Knicks when Jameson was killed.
“My phone was in my hand but I wasn’t paying attention,” he said. “When I started paying attention was when I heard two shots, and then I hear my mother screaming and crying.”
The shooting has generated outrage online and around Los Angeles. Mayor Karen Bass promised a “thorough and transparent” investigation “so that Angelenos have a complete understanding of what happened to Jameson and this family.”
Ms. Bass’s opponent in the mayoral election, Nithya Raman, said in a social media post that she was “horrified” by the killing. “Los Angeles deserves a public safety response where a joyful family celebration does not end in tragedy,” she wrote.
Chief Jim McDonnell of the L.A.P.D. appeared on KFI, a local radio station, and said, “There is no incident more serious than when an officer discharges their firearm.” He promised the public a full investigation.
“A loss of a pet is something deeply personal,” he said. “And for many, a dog is not simply an animal. It’s a companion, a source of comfort and a member of the family.”
The department is investigating the incident, as it would with any shooting by an officer. Ms. Marseille said two detectives had interviewed her and her son.
The L.A.P.D. issued a use-of-force policy for hostile dog encounters in 2023. It lists seven tactics and tools officers can use before firing their weapon: voice commands; chemical spray; baton; fire extinguisher; Taser; a beanbag shotgun; and kicking.
Ms. Marseille said the detectives were apologetic when they interviewed her. But she does not understand why the officers had to resort to deadly force when they were approached by a dog known in her apartment complex as a gentle giant.
If officers were scared, she said, why didn’t they use less lethal options?
Ms. Marseille and her son had waited their whole lives to see the Knicks win a championship. When the moment came, they had a half-hour to experience the pure elation of the moment: the time between the buzzer sounding in San Antonio and the cops knocking on her door.
Now, she says, she can’t enjoy the title without thinking about Jameson’s death.
The post After Her Knicks Celebration Drew the Police, an Officer Killed Her Dog appeared first on New York Times.
