A 45-year-old nurse in Canoga Park says she was celebrating the New York Knicks' first NBA title in 53 years when Los Angeles police showed up at her door, asked about the screaming, and shot her two-year-old dog twice within seconds of it running outside. The dog, a St. Bernard-golden retriever-poodle mix named Jameson, died on the spot, still wearing a blue and orange Knicks t-shirt.
Marie Marseille told NBC News that the whole thing started because she was shouting with joy after the Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs in Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Saturday night. Someone in the neighborhood called police about a screaming woman. Officers arrived at her apartment in the San Fernando Valley, and minutes later, Jameson was dead.
The LAPD released its own account on Tuesday. The department said officers responded to a radio call about a "screaming woman" in Canoga Park, and that a person reporting the screaming directed them to Marseille's apartment unit. What happened next is where the two versions diverge, and where the questions pile up fast.
The LAPD news release stated that when Marseille opened the door, a "large dog" was barking at officers. The department said officers asked her to secure the animal, and Marseille closed the door momentarily. When she reopened it, the LAPD said, the dog exited the apartment.
"Once outside of the apartment, the dog charged at one of the officers, resulting in an Officer-Involved Shooting (OIS)."
That is the department's full public explanation so far. No body-camera footage has been released. No officer has been named. No case number has been made public. The LAPD said the Los Angeles Department of Animal Services responded and took custody of the deceased dog, and that Marseille cooperated with the investigation.
Marseille's account is different in ways that matter. She said she tried to push Jameson back so she could speak to the officers. The dog, she said, snuck past her legs and ran outside. She said she watched Jameson get shot twice within seconds. He was breathing for a few seconds before he died.
She has repeatedly said Jameson had "never once" shown aggression toward anyone and "generally does not bark when there's a knock or a ring at the door." She told NBC News she could not even remember whether the dog barked when officers arrived.
"I just don't understand. I don't understand it. I don't get it. He wasn't doing anything, he didn't do anything. I know he didn't. I know he didn't."
Marseille, originally from Rockland County, New York, described herself as a longtime Knicks fan. When New York clinched its first NBA championship in more than half a century, she reacted the way millions of fans across the country did, loudly.
"I started screaming. I was like 'The Knicks are champions! The Knicks just won!' It was so euphoric."
That euphoria ended when police knocked on her door. A TikTok video of the aftermath, which NBC News reported had been viewed more than 15 million times, shows Marseille on the floor, lying over Jameson's body. About half a dozen officers stand nearby. The dog is still wearing his Knicks shirt.
An off-camera voice in the video captures the frustration of at least one witness, who said: "This is f---ing pathetic when there's drug dealers, people stabbing each other outside." That raw reaction, from someone standing feet away from a dead family pet, speaks to a sentiment shared by many residents in a city where violent crime continues to claim lives in neighborhoods across Los Angeles.
By Tuesday, a GoFundMe page set up for Jameson's cremation fees had raised more than $117,000. Marseille told NBC News she plans to donate some of the money or start a nonprofit in Jameson's name.
The department's Tuesday news release raises more questions than it settles. The LAPD did not say whether Jameson made physical contact with any officer or caused any injury before being shot. It did not name the officer who fired. It did not specify how many officers responded in total. It did not cite any departmental policy or procedure governing the use of lethal force against animals.
And it did not release body-camera footage, footage that, in a city that has spent years debating police transparency, could resolve the central factual dispute in seconds.
Did a two-year-old mixed-breed dog in a t-shirt "charge" at an armed officer in a way that justified lethal force? Or did a startled pet bolt through an open door and get killed for it? The LAPD's own words and Marseille's account agree on the basic sequence: door opened, dog came out, officer fired. They disagree on whether the dog posed any real threat.
Marseille put the question plainly:
"Why is the gun the first option? I don't get it."
It is a fair question. Officers responding to a noise complaint, not a violent crime, not a domestic disturbance, not an armed suspect, encountered a woman and her pet. Within moments, the pet was dead. The "screaming woman" turned out to be a happy basketball fan. The threat was a dog in a Knicks jersey.
Los Angeles is a city where police resources are stretched thin. Residents regularly complain about slow response times for serious crimes. The LAPD has faced scrutiny over its handling of everything from chaotic protests in downtown Los Angeles to high-profile arrest cases involving alleged threats and harassment.
Against that backdrop, dispatching officers to a noise complaint about a screaming woman, and having the encounter end with a dead family dog, is the kind of outcome that erodes public trust in ways no press release can repair.
This is not an argument against policing. Officers responding to a report of a screaming woman are doing their job. The question is what happened after they arrived, and whether the force used was remotely proportional to the situation they found.
Marseille said she hopes Jameson's death will lead to reform within the LAPD. That may or may not happen. But the department owes the public, and Marseille, a fuller accounting than a vague news release issued days after the fact.
The officer who pulled the trigger responded to a call about a woman screaming with joy. The "threat" weighed less than a full-grown man and was wearing a basketball t-shirt. If the LAPD's body cameras captured something that justifies two shots fired within seconds, the department should release that footage immediately. If they didn't capture something that justifies it, the public deserves to know that, too.
Across Southern California, residents have watched law enforcement navigate genuinely dangerous situations where split-second decisions carry life-or-death consequences. Those situations demand the benefit of the doubt. A noise complaint about a basketball celebration does not.
Marseille told NBC News the whole thing could have been avoided:
"This could have been prevented. I really truly believe it could have been."
She also said something simpler, and harder to argue with:
"We were just so happy. We just celebrating the Knicks."
The Knicks won their first championship in 53 years. Marie Marseille lost her dog. And the LAPD still hasn't explained, with evidence, not a press release, why that trade was necessary.
When a city's police force can't tell the difference between a crime in progress and a fan celebrating a basketball game, the problem isn't the fan.
