[RP TownTalk] Dog incident

[Vernon Archer]

Dear friends and neighbors:

I asked our Police Chief Teresa Chambers to draft a letter that outlined the
events leading up to the shooting of a dog on Monday May 12.  The letter is
provided for your information and is not an official report.

Anytime a shot is fired, the absolute minimum action that the department
takes is to have one of our detectives conduct an internal investigation.
That investigation has not been completed.

____________________________________


May 14, 2008



Mr. Mayor –



We in the Riverdale Park Police Department are saddened at having to destroy
the dog we encountered.  Many of us are pet owners and care deeply about the
care and well being of animals.  What occurred prior to shots being
fired are critical factors that led us to take this action.



At 3:24 p.m. on May 12, 2008, our dispatcher received a frantic call from a
bicyclist who was commuting to work via the bike trail that runs between the
Northeast Branch of the Anacostia River and Taylor Road.  The dispatcher has
described the victim as screaming for help, and he told her he was being
attacked by a pit-bull.  He told the dispatcher he was near the pumping
station off of Taylor Road.  The dispatcher could hear the dog barking and
snarling.  The victim was using his bicycle to fight off the dog.



Officers were dispatched to the call to assist the man who was being
attacked.  Based upon the seriousness of the call and the chance of serious
injury being incurred by the victim, officers responded to the area using
lights and sirens.  When the officers arrived and ran on foot to the bike
trail, they saw the dog still attacking the victim and lunging toward a
second victim, a child.



One of the first officers who arrived at the scene of the attack first
attempted to use a taser to stop the dog's attack; however the dog's quick
movements made it impossible to accurately deploy the weapon.  When the dog
moved away from the victims, one of the officers was able to safely fire his
issued handgun several times at the dog.  It is possible that one or more of
the rounds struck the dog, and the dog began running through the yards
toward Taylor Road in the direction of Longfellow Street.



Fearing the dog would attack someone else, the officers gave chase.  While
we would have liked to have been able to await Prince George's County Animal
Control officers, they will only respond if an animal is contained in a
secured location.  Once the dog got to a location where the officers could
fire their weapons without the chance of injury to a passer-by (5320 Taylor
Road), they fired their firearms at the dog.  Since the dog was still in the
open and able to run freely prior to being shot, to have not destroyed the
dog at that time would have been irresponsible on our part and would have
left the Town of Riverdale Park in an indefensible position if the dog had
then attacked another victim.



It was necessary to fire several shots to kill the dog.  Animal Control
personnel have trained law enforcement to avoid, whenever possible, firing a
shot to an animal's head when we destroy it (it is important for them to
have the animal's brain to accurately test for rabies).  In this case,
though, the animal did not die after the first few shots were fired; and,
instead of allowing the dog to suffer further, a fatal shot was fired to the
dog's head.



None of us felt good about having to destroy a dog who, we later learned,
was a pet of a town resident.  We know, though, that making the decision to
do so was appropriate and necessary and was done in the safest possible
manner.



Teresa Chambers

Chief of Police

Town of Riverdale Park


-- 
Vernon Archer, Mayor
Town of Riverdale Park, Maryland
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