Pit bull?
"Pit bull?"
Sounds like a bigger dog from reading the article. Pitbulls are not that big. Compared to a Lab or something.
One thing is for sure, any large dog barking in front of someone can be intimdating. I`d look for the tail wag, if it wasn`t wagging, shoot to kill......
Another thing that wasn`t mentioned is maybe the officer was very afraid of dogs. I had an incident at my house once where the police came, and one police officer wouldn`t get out of his car because my Alaskan Malamute was in the yard. It was almost comical.
German Shepherd/Pointer/Lab mix.