Detroit Police have determined that an officer was justified in fatally shooting a dog in the head on the east side Aug. 3 after it attacked a police dog.
The incident happened as police were searching neighborhood yards for a suspect's weapon, Miriam Marini of the Detroit Free Press reports. Department officials say the officer acted according to protocol. The dog was believed to be a pit bull.
The Freep reports:
Ring doorbell footage of the incident, which has since gone viral, shows a Detroit officer walking along a residential sidewalk with a K-9 officer on a leash when a white medium-sized dog runs up to its home's front gate. The two dogs run together on opposite sides of the fence, then the K-9 approaches the fence and the white dog latches itself onto the K-9's snout between the wrought iron fence rails.
The officer is then seen reaching for her gun and firing a single fatal shot at the white dog's head...
“Her partner (K-9) was being attacked and we demand that our officers protect not only themselves but their partners and citizens. At this point it was a clear and present danger; her dog was being viciously harmed," said Police Commander Darin Szilagyi in an interview Friday. "It's unfortunate it came to this. We don't like to see any animal hurt.”
A Detroit police officer shot someone’s dog that posed no threat inside its own fence after he lost control of his own K9.
— Julián Castro (@JulianCastro) August 22, 2020
This officer should be held accountable. He should be fired and prosecuted. pic.twitter.com/28D4TuiMmy
