Posted on 07/07/2011 11:28:16 AM PDT by Immerito
UPDATE 7:47 p.m. Sept. 13: The Washington Post has obtained the police report on the incident. It describes the dog as appearing "to be out of control" and says the dog "charged" at the officer before it was fatally shot.
10:16 p.m. Updated with a statement from Third District police that conflicts with the dog handler's spokesman's statement, and an e-mailed statement from the handler himself.
There's never a shortage of police officers at Adams Morgan Day, just in case someone gets out of hand. Today, that someone was a dog.
An officer with the D.C. police department shot and killed a dog — possibly a rottweiler or pit bull — outside The Brass Knob antique store at 2311 18th St. NW. The shooting followed an intense, two-minute scuffle between the dog and what witnesses describe as a "smaller" white dog.
In dispute of the what the dog's handler has said, police tonight released a statement saying the dog was out of control and also bit the handler. Here's the entire e-mail from Third District Capt. Aubrey P. Mongal:
Earlier this afternoon, during the Adams Morgan Day events, an MPD officer encountered a dog in the crowded pedestrian area that got out of the control of it’s handler. The dog attacked another dog and also bit it handler. The officer, after making several attempts to subdue the dog by training tactics, had to finally shoot one time to stop the dog.
On the contrary, says the handler, who only wants to be identified as Aaron. In an e-mail to TBD, Aaron said the apparent foster dog, Parrot, didn't bite anyone.
In my recollection and as the eyewitness accounts will coroborate, the dog was completely under my control when the k9 officer removed me. Parrot bit no human, the only blood he drew was when i thrust my hand into his mouth to get him off the other dog. The k9 officer's injury, which he showed me at the station after, was nothing more than a rope burn from Parrot's leash, suffered when the officer was throwing my dog down a flight of stairs.
D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier, in an earlier response to an e-mail from advisory neighborhood commissioner and candidate for the Ward 1 D.C. Council seat Bryan Weaver, said three people, including a K9 officer, were bitten by the dog. Here's an excerpt of the e-mail:
I don't know all of the facts at this point so it is very difficult for me to comment beyond the facts that I have been given. All I know is that there is one dog who was attacked by the pit bull and 3 people, including a K9 officer, that were bitten by the pit bull.
Police sources had earlier told ABC 7 the officer who shot the dog was a canine handler who was experienced with dogs. He was trying to separate the dogs, and attempted to choke hold the larger dog. While he was trying that, the dog attempted to bite him or did bite him, and he threw him down the stairwell in an attempt to injure the dog. The dog charged the officer and the officer opened fire, the sources said.
An unidentified spokesperson for the dog's handler said the cop didn't try hard enough to subdue the dog.
In an e-mail to TBD, Weaver said the dog had seemed friendly at his booth at the festival just 15 minutes before the incident:
"Aaron is a good guy, he said he had the dog under control and the cop grabbed it from him and threw him down the well at [Marie] Reed and shot him. Dog was playing with kids at my booth 15 min earlier. Aaron is really shaken."
One witness, 46-year-old Harriet Winslow, said that at first, she saw the two dogs — the white-sandy pitbull-looking dog and a cute white fluffy lap dog — barking and fighting.
"Everybody glanced over and the owners of these dogs were frantically trying to pull them apart. We're all looking concerned. Suddenly, the owner of the pitbull was down on the ground trying to subdue his dog. He was really trying hard — I have to give him credit. He was on the ground wrapping his arms around the dog. I could see him down on the ground. I mean he was really trying."
After the two dogs were pulled apart, Winslow says she could see that the smaller dog was fine. But the dogs were still barking at each other.
Then a cop appeared.
"I glanced over again and I saw a very able bodied police officer fully a stride the dog — the cop straddling dog. The pitbull was still animated, still trying to get up. But this cop — I thought 'Wow this guy is good at this, he subdued a really angry dog.' Then I thought 'Good, this is now over.' Then I walk just five or 10 feet away and I hear a gun shot."
Before she heard the shot, she said she thought "the cop was totally in control. ... It's not something I would want to do. He really was on top of this dog."
Noah Siegel, who works at nearby Spaghetti Garden restaurant, says he saw "two or three cops" surrounding the dog. One of the officers, says Siegel, had the dog on a leash and attempted to drag it away from the commotion.
The dog began "trying to attack the cop," says Siegel. "Next thing I knew, they had it down there in the corner and I heard a shot and that was it," says Siegel, who was interviewed by ABC 7's Brianne Carter.
An onlooker who attempted to intervene in the dogfight sustained a scrape or two. "He's fine," reports ABC 7's Carter.
Fire the cop.
This is getting monotonous anymore.
Any cop that shoots MY dog is a dead man, period.
I'm not sure that's standard procedure.
Not enough no-knocks scheduled so he had to find a dog to shoot
Anyone else throwing a dog down a stairwell would be arrested.
Fire the cop.
This is getting monotonous anymore.
Any cop that shoots MY dog is a dead man, period.
And you will likely go to prison for a very long time.
Puting animal life over human life is normally a bad idea.
What’s disturbing is that the dog’s owner had the dog under his control (confirmed by all eyewitnesses) and the cop *removed* the dog from the *owner’s* control.
The other dog was a poodle, and it may have (debatable) sparked the confrontation.
http://dcist.com/2010/09/spokesperson_officer_knocked_owner.php
The dog made “a threatening move to his pocket”...
As is taking a person’s private property without cause.
The cop in this story removed the dog from the owner, which had regained control over his dog. The dogfight had ended.
A good cop would find out which dog started the fight (his dog or the poodle) and would fine/warn (as appropriate with local law) the owner of the dog that started the fight.
It does seem as though cops are becoming more and more violent these days.
For a while the cops and the bootlickers all claimed that it was in response to rising crime rates. But we have hard data now from the FBI and several other independent outlets which shows that crimes in all categories, including violent crimes, assaults on police officers et al... are all at record lows and they are still dropping.
While violence by police is at record highs and still climbing, along with record numbers of excessive force law suits. Last year police departments cost taxpayers over $346,000,000.00 in civil settlements...
http://www.injusticeeverywhere.com/?p=4053
That other guy says you’d go to jail...
a. Not if I’m on the jury
b. dog live vs. human life... Was that cop really human? Doubtful.
Trying to hold down a big dog is tough also its very hard even if you are the owner if the dog doesn't want to be held down is mad scared ect.
I could very well see the dog trying to bite the holder.
Was the officer justified to killed the dog not enough infomation for me to call it one way or the other.
It is easy be a back seat quarter back when you were not there.
Poodles are one of the breeds very popular with puppy mills. Poorly bred and poorly handled when young results in a very poorly behaving dog.
We had an AKC registered poodle given to us. Worst dog I ever had. I could easily see a poodle starting the confrontation.
I, too, look forward to the day when a canine killing machine breaks tether of it's spaghetti limbed, hipster handler, and has free reign of the streets until it gets bored and falls asleep.
All dogs are cuddly and wonderful and all cops are just there waiting for a chance to kill a friendly puppy.
Case closed.
Some folks think of dogs as their children and get unduly emotional about it. It's quite sad really.
Looks like the dog is under control to me.
And some people have no regard for other peoples property nor for the pain and suffering they cause.
Its quite sad really.
All witnesses have confirmed that the owner had the dog under control. The officer * forcibly removed* the dog from the owner’s control.
Which scenario is more likely to result in an out of control dog—an owner, who knows the dog and knows best how to keep it subdued, or a stranger grabbing the dog away from the owner, frightening the dog which doesn’t understand why it is being separated from its alpha?
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