WOOF-WHOA! After barking at cops from atop a bed — and getting smacked out this window — 7-pound Chuwie (above) fell three stories, say owners Ronald and Giselle Estevez. (Matthew McDermott)
WOOF-WHOA! After barking at cops from atop a bed — and getting smacked out this window — 7-pound Chuwie fell three stories, say owners Ronald and Giselle Estevez. (Matthew McDermott)
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A brave 7-pound pooch trying to protect three little kids in his family was heartlessly slapped out a third-story window by a cop on a failed drug raid, a lawsuit charges.
Chuwie, a miniature Doberman-Pomeranian mix, miraculously survived, but his owner says the family pet hasn’t been the same since.
“How could a police officer do that to a tiny dog?’’ said Iris Ramos, whose son-in-law, Ronald Estevez, 27, owns Chuwie.
The dog never tried to attack a cop — all he did was bark, according to the family’s Bronx Civil Court lawsuit against the city and NYPD for unspecified damages, including $300 in vet bills.
“Children were crying. Guns were being pointed in their faces,’’ said family lawyer Jeffrey Emdin.
The suit also charges false arrests and claims that when the cops left the apartment, $1,200 in cash, a gold bracelet and several documents were missing.
Emdin said Iris Ramos’ brother, daughter, son-in-law and niece were arrested for drug possession their cases were later dismissed.
Ramos, 48, thinks the cops were targeting her troubled son, who had briefly stayed in her apartment but left weeks earlier.
“None of these people have any criminal history at all,” Emdin said.
The NYPD declined comment. The court papers acknowledge the officers had a warrant. The three toddlers, ages 3, 4 and 5, were with their mom, Stacey Acevedo, who is Ramos’ niece, in a bedroom when the cops stormed in early in the morning, the suit claims.
The protective pup jumped on a bed and began barking at the cops — only to be backhanded four feet across the apartment and out the window through the bars of a window guard, the suit says.
Estevez was handcuffed and being interrogated in another room, when, a few minutes later, a detective entered the apartment, which belongs to his mother-in-law. The detective was holding Chuwie.
“How did my dog get outside?” Estevez recalls asking cops amid the chaos of the 6:40 a.m. drug raid in October 2010.
The pet-loving family tried to resume their normal lives, but 5-year-old Chuwie, who earned his name as a puppy by chewing on “everything,” hasn’t been the same since his ordeal.
The lawn outside the building cushioned Chuwie’s landing, but Estevez noticed he was gingerly holding up his injured right paw after the 25-foot drop.
“Chuwie was shaking — his hair was standing up — he was in a panic,” Estevez said.
His wife, Giselle, 25, said Chuwie couldn’t eat for days after the raid and is scared to leap off the couch.
“I’m lucky he’s alive. That’s my baby. I love him to death,” she said.
Chuwie barely missed a concrete area below the window.
“If he would have fallen on that,’’ she said, crying, “I don’t even want to think about it.’’