Definitely not a dog bred to be aggressive.
I don’t get that at all ,, a patrolman in a small town doesn’t know every single road in the county??
Not unnecessarily. I grew up on the end of a half mile dead end road. I don't I saw a police car more than a 100 yards down that road in the dozen years I lived there.
If an officer was called out to one of the houses living on a long driveway off of the road I have little doubt they would have had to stop and ask directions from one of the neighbors along the way. Notice that the house is a way back off of the main road. In such areas the mailboxes are often clustered together on the main road, not by each driveway. You often can't see house numbers from the road.
I think the dogs owner had it 100% right ,, he was playing big bad-ass for his relative...
Look at the video. He walks casually towards the house. Stops and pauses for maybe a second, then starts backing up. He barely gets his gun out before the dog gets to him, and shoots the dog at point blank and the dog is still charging at him when shot.
There doesn't seem to be any evidence of premeditation there.
Despite what the dog owner said he also hadn't backed up far enough to get behind his car door, and it's pretty questionable if he could have gotten the door open and between him and the dog before it got to him unless he turned and ran immediately when it first came at him. Once he paused to evaluate the situation and started backing up, it appears to me the opportunity to jump back in the car was lost.
The dog was being very aggressive. The dog didn't appear to be running up and stopping back a short distance and barking it's head off like dogs usually do. It was charging right at him and didn't appear to be slowing at all. It also looks to me like he shot the dog at pretty much the last possible moment.
His choices seemed to be to shoot or wait and see if the dog turned at the last possible moment, or if it wouldn't really bite him. Or to just take the bite since I don't thing this dog would have taken a big bite out of him. Of course that's easier to say in hindsight from the other end of a security camera than with the dog charging at you.
A dozen years ago I doubt many police officers would have shot the dog. Though I bet a lot of rural police officers back then also got bitten, and then the dogs go put down.
Pepper spray would have been a better choice, but it doesn't look like he had much time to consider his options.
I don't approve of what the officer did, but it also doesn't seem completely unreasonable to me either.
I feel sorry for the dog and the dog owner.
If this had been some teenage girl selling magazines I wonder if we would have heard about the mean dog biting the poor young girl. However since it's a big, tough police officer we just expect him to only react with force after the dog has bitten him.
I watched the video for a second time. I believe that you are wrong. The dog was running toward the car, but not directly attacking the perp. Instead of spending time pulling his gun, he could have made it back to open the car door. I’d guess that he is not a (pet) dog person. The dog likely wanted to knock him over to lick his face. Whenever I approach an unfamiliar rural homestead and get out of the car, I first get the dog situation straightened out. Most dogs will let you out of your car, but there has to be a meeting of the minds first (this can sometimes take a couple of minutes).
After reading you analysis, I went back and watched the clip - and I think you are wrong.
That dog did nothing more agressive than run up to lick him.
You need to visit an optometrist if that’s what you saw on the video.
Who knows, maybe you have a big career as a baseball umpire ahead of you with eyesight that keen.....