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Blue

A Washington D.C. resident says one of several police officers chasing a man on a bicycle shot her dog twice without provocation.

Blue, a three-year-old male pit bull, was shot  in the shoulder and hip.

“This is wrong. This is animal cruelty, this is excessive”, his owner, Tiffany Reynolds, told ABC7.

Last week’s shooting comes nearly a year after a pit bull mix was pushed or thrown into a stairwell by a D.C. police officer trying to break up an altercation between dogs during a street festival. The officer said the dog was charging toward him when he fatally shot him.

Parrot

That dog, named Parrot, was being fostered while awaiting adoption through Lucky Dog Animal Rescue.

In last week’s incident, Reynolds said an officer came up an alley, near the 900 Block of Crittenden Street, NW. His gun was drawn, and he told her to grab her dog, who wasn’t on a leash.

She said she was reaching for her dog when the officer fired what neighbors say was five shots: “As I’m grabbing him,” she said. “The officer could’ve shot me. I’m grabbing toward toward the dog and he’s shooting my dog.”

Thursday night, an police spokesman confirmed that an officer did fire his weapon, that a dog was shot, and that an internal investigation is underway.

Blue ran off, and was discovered by a neighbor several blocks away. He was treated at an animal clinic and is expected to survive.

Reynolds was issued a citation and faces a $100 fine for not having her dog on a leash.

A D.C. police officer shot and killed what law enforcement authorities described as a pit bull during a festival in Adams Morgan on Sunday afternoon — an action the dog’s caretaker said was uncalled for.

Aaron Block, 25, of Dupont Circle, said he was walking 2-year-old “Parrot,” who he described as a Shar-Pei mix, up 18th Street when the dog suddenly turned around and bit a poodle that was passing by.

Block said he managed to separate the two dogs, and was subduing Parrot when police arrived. A police officer took over, putting his knee in the middle of Parrot’s back while the dog was on the ground.

According to Block, the officer then grabbed Parrot by his neck and threw him over a banister at the Brass Knob antique store. Block said the dog was getting up when the officer shot him.

“The officer drew his gun in an unnecessary act of cowboy gunslinging law enforcement and shot my dog amidst a crowd of thousands,” said Block, who was fostering Parrot while he was waiting to be adopted through Lucky Dog Animal Rescue. “The problems here are almost too numerous to count,” he told the Washington Post.

The Post, which ran this photograph of the incident, by Dylan Singleton, also published the full police report, which was obtained by Lucky Dog Animal Rescue.

The officer, 25-year-veteran Scott Fike, fired one shot, fatally wounding the dog.

Jacob Kishter, commander of the 3rd Police District, said that the dog was running at the officer, and called the shooting justified.

Tony De Pass, 67, a former D.C. police officer who lives in Northwest, said that the dog was charging directly at him when Fike drew his gun and fired and that “if the officer hadn’t shot the dog, the dog would have got one of us, either me or the officer…What he did, I would have done the same damn thing.”

Block said Parrot was a “very people-friendly dog, with absolutely no bite history.”

On it’s website, the rescue organization called Parrot’s death tragic and unwarranted: “We have received numerous questions about the incident, and, because news outlets have varied significantly in recounting what happened, we have spoken to as many eye witnesses as possible, and have requested and obtained the official police report.”

“According to multiple eye witnesses, Parrot had already been subdued and was being held securely by his foster, Aaron Block, when the police arrived on the scene.  Parrot was not ‘out of control.’

Lucky Dog also disputes that the dog was charging at the officer. “A witness who was standing on the Brass Doorknob’s porch saw what transpired in the stairwell.  He told us that Parrot was stunned from the fall and had only just gotten to his feet when the officer drew his gun and opened fire without provocation.”