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Article Archive > Cops kill pit bull as animal charges at them Cops kill pit bull as animal charges at them HOWELL - Police officers responding to a pit bull attack on Monday shot and killed the animal after it leaped over a deck railing and charged at them, police said. The supervising officer at the scene of the shooting and an official with the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals both said the action was justified. But the dog's owner, 19-year-old Brian Jones, said his pet had been running toward him. "He was running to me, and they shot him," Jones said. "They shot him at least 20 times," Jones said, adding that the animal ran under a truck "and just laid there and died." An assessment of the dog by animal control officers showed that it was hit once in the chest, said Buddy Amato, chief of the Monmouth County SPCA. Police did not say how many shots were fired. The victim in the 2 p.m. attack that drew police to a house on Locust Avenue, 44-year-old Bruce Jones of Lakewood, was taken to Kim-ball Medical Center in Lakewood after officers found him bleeding from bites to his arms, hands, legs, back and chest. A necropsy will be performed on the dog to see if it had rabies. Monday's incident was the second time Bruce Jones had been bitten by the dog, said his nephew, Brian Jones, who lives at the Locust Avenue house with his father and grandmother. "I came home, and there were police cars in my driveway," Brian Jones said. "My dog was on the porch with five cops with their guns drawn, pointing at him. I told them to let me put him in his cage." Jones said the dog jumped off the porch where it had been detained after the animal heard his voice and saw him standing some 5 feet away. Police then shot the animal. Next-door neighbor Anne Krisak, a mother of two who is expecting a third child, said the dog had been around her children many times and was always docile. But the dog appeared much differently to police. More than 50 pounds and 8 months old, the dog had blood around its mouth, chest and front paws, authorities said. Bruce Jones received immediate treatment before being transported to the hospital. Sgt. Rocco Cavaluzzi, the supervising officer, said his officers "did what they had to do," to protect themselves and civilians. He wishes his officers weren't put in a position in which they had to use their firearms. "It's an animal," he said. "It doesn't know any better." Amato said he would have made the same decision as police and felt bad for the officers involved. They came to help and "got involved in a bad situation," he said. "I'm not going to let Howell Township take a hit on this," Amato said. |