Bodycam video shows Georgia officer shooting beloved donkey HeeHaw during search for missing girl

Body-camera video obtained by CBS News Atlanta shows a donkey named HeeHaw galloping toward officers before a Cedartown police officer shoots him dead.

The opening portion of the recording has no audio. After the shooting, Officer Trenton Garner tells dispatch: "Firearm discharged at a donkey. It was trying to attack us in the pasture and on the track." 

Officers then continue searching for the girl.

Garner is now asking a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by HeeHaw's owner, Hannah Michelle Israel. 

In an Oct. 7 filing, his attorney argues the footage shows Garner acted to protect another officer from an immediate threat.

Israel alleges officers entered her pasture without permission and shot HeeHaw without provocation. Her complaint describes the donkey as "young, small, and tranquil," according to Garner's court filing.

The shooting happened shortly after midnight Aug. 30 while officers were helping search for a missing 12-year-old girl in Polk County.

Garner's attorney, J. Scott Key, argues the recording shows HeeHaw approaching another officer and getting within a body length of him before Garner fired. He also argues that crossing the pasture did not violate Israel's constitutional rights and that Garner should be protected from the lawsuit.

In his incident report, Garner wrote that another officer activated a Taser's electrical arc to try to scare the donkey away, but HeeHaw continued approaching. Garner said he fired once, and the donkey turned, moved uphill, and collapsed.

Israel told officers she had bottle-fed HeeHaw since he was young and that he had never acted aggressively or tried to bite anyone.

Garner was placed on administrative leave while the Georgia Department of Agriculture's Law Enforcement Division conducted an outside investigation.