Posted on 09/05/2011 7:52:36 AM PDT by Notary Sojac
Wearing a plastic protector around his face, 'Blue,' a three year male pit bull, has been shot and wounded in the shoulder and hip.
"This is wrong. This is animal cruelty, this is excessive", says his owner Tiffany Reynolds.
Reynolds, and her angry and concerned neighbors, say the gunfire came from an MPD officer's service weapon.
"It was like pop pop pop pop," recalls neighbor Sheila Love.
"We heard five shots," says Kathy Washington, who also lives nearby.
"We actually jumped up and ran in the house, because in the beginning we didn't know what was going on," she adds.
Witnesses say around one Thursday afternoon, they saw 4th District officers pursuing a man on a bicycle, near the 900 Block of Crittenden Street, NW.
Reynolds says one officer came up an alley, his gun drawn, and told her to grab her dog, who wasn't on a leash.
But then she says, "As my dog looked back, he began to shoot at my dog."
"And you're still holding onto him?" asked ABC7 reporter Richard Reeve.
She replied, "As I'm grabbing him. The officer could've shot me. I'm grabbing toward toward the dog and he's shooting my dog."
Perhaps most frightening, Reynolds says, was that the gun was pointed at her and her sister.
"I think the officer was really scared," Shana Reynolds says.
"Probably scared him more 'cos he pointed a weapon at us," she adds.
Thursday night, an MPD spokesman confirmed an internal investigation is underway--- that an officer did fire his weapon, and that a dog was shot.
Blue ran off, and was discovered by a neighbor at 7th and Shepherd, at least several blocks away.
He was later treated at an animal clinic in NW Washington.
Reynolds was cited $100 for not having her dog on a leash.
She and her neighbors insist the dog would never hurt anyone and they want answers.
"I have never, as long as I'm living, and I'm fifty, seen that dog attack anyone," Washington says.
Reynolds says what's strange is that the officer involved is on the beat in the neighborhood- that he knows the dog, and the dog knows him.
She says she'd like an explanation, or perhaps an apology.
Blue, despite his wounds, is expected to survive.
“Would you rather live in a world with cops and no dogs, or a world with dogs and no cops? “
Based on what I’ve seen and experienced with both dogs and cops, I vote for dogs over cops every time! I’ve had one dog or another for the all of my 71 years. They have enriched my life immeasurably. Cops, not so much. Besides, cops belong to unions, unlike dogs.
The answer is crystal clear to me. I vastly prefer dogs over cops. I really don’t need cops for any purpose.
GMTA....;)
Lock a cop and your dog in the trunk of your car on a hot day. After an hour, let ‘em out, and see which one is happy to see you...
;)
I need both cops and dogs but I need cops who don’t view dogs as ammo dumps.
“”Wearing a plastic protector around his face, ‘Blue,’ a three year male pit bull,””
And why was the dog wearing a plastic protector if she had never seen it attack anyone???
Something does not add up here.
Check the article. The collar was on the dog ‘after’ he was shot, to keep him from licking/chewing his wounds.
In Texas we have the Castle Doctrine. I have a right to protect my property. And my dog is my property. Part of Founding Fathers’ reasoning for the Second Amendment was to protect ourselves from the “Sheriff” acting in a criminal manner.
LOLOL
I have dogs.
I have guns.
If allowed to use both freely and as necessary, I’d never need a cop.
Thanks for clarifying that.
How about in a world where before being hired, police are psychologically evaluated for severe neurotic tendencies, such as claustrophobia, fear of heights, fire, clowns, snakes, dogs, or any other hysteria that may incline them to pull out their gun and start blasting away in a blind terror?
You would think they would have thought of that by now.
We have CD too but I bet it doesn’t extend to cops.
Thanks.
Ain't gonna happen in DC where there's gun ban... The main reason why cop shot the dog is he watched so much TV saying pitbull are very vicious dog, the cop also overreacted didn't realize the dog wearing plastic protector.
I am almost 50yrs old and have never been protected or served by the streetgang in blue. I have been harrassed, threatened, and my rights violated...but never by dogs.
As far as I’m concerned, if a strange dog comes up one side of the street, and a police officer comes up the opposite direction, I turn my back on the dog and go on alert to the real threat.
I am almost 50yrs old and have never been protected or served by the streetgang in blue. I have been harrassed, threatened, and my rights violated...but never by dogs.
As far as I’m concerned, if a strange dog comes up one side of the street, and a police officer comes up the opposite direction, I turn my back on the dog and go on alert to the real threat.
I’ll take the dogs any day. No arrogance, no power trip.... Just honesty.
Fining the owner because her dog was not on a leash where leash laws are present? Lawful and reasonable.
Shooting the dog just because he was scared/could? Unlawful and unreasonable.
That day has come:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2762845/posts
So long as “shoot the dog first, ask questions later” remains the apparent policy of police departments who refuse to follow Peelian principles, such incidents (dog owners shooting cops who unlawfully threaten their dogs) will only increase.
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