Baltimore officer mistakenly shoots police dog
A case of double mistaken identity led to a Baltimore police officer shooting the Baltimore police dog who attacked him Sunday night.
Police called in a K-9 unit to help chase a man who drove through a checkpoint near Wegworth Park, off of Hollins Ferry Road, then exited his car and started running, according to a report in the Baltimore Sun
When the K-9 unit arrived, a German shepherd named Blade was unleashed to pursue the motorist. When another officer arrived on the scene from a different direction, he was attacked by the dog. The dog, possibly mistaking him for the suspect, leapt on the officer and bit him about the upper body.
The unidentified officer, not knowing the dog was a police dog, pulled out his handgun and shot the dog at least once.
A police spokesman said the dog was taken to Falls Road Animal Hospital in Mount Washington, where he underwent surgery for a bullet wound. The spokesman said he did not know how many times the dog was shot, or what condition he was in.
The officer, who was wearing body armor, was not seriously injured.
Posted by jwoestendiek November 9th, 2009 under Muttsblog.
Tags: attacked, baltimore, baltimore police, bitten, blade, chase, checkpoint, dog, dogs, falls road animal hospital, german shepherd, K-9, news, officer, police, pursuit, shot, suspect, wegworth park
Comments
Comment from Lauren
Time November 10, 2009 at 11:46 pm
Allye – That’s horrible! I’m sorry for your loss.
Comment from Mike
Time January 30, 2010 at 5:01 pm
Sounds like a good lawsuit to me. Why wasn’t the dog owned by the officer on a leash? Do you have leash laws?
Comment from Allye
Time November 9, 2009 at 4:51 pm
I came across this article when searching for dog shootings in Maryland. On Saturday, November 7 at about 2:00pm in a Howard County neighborhood, a Baltimore City off-duty police officer, his wife, and their two dogs were walking by my house. As they passed by his dogs and my pit-bull mix, Brody, who was inside at the time, began barking at each other. The officer’s dogs started up our front steps Brody ran out the door towards the dogs. The officer reacted to this by pulling out his weapon and firing two shots at Brody in our front lawn, which led to his death.
We got Brody from an animal shelter about two years ago. He was the most loving and sweetest dog I have ever known, and has and would never hurt a soul.
Unfortunately the Howard County cops reacted with a “it’s just a dog” attitude and were no help to finding justice. If anyone knows how to get this story out to the media please contact me. Thank you.