Deputy Chief JoAnne Fisk said the officer, who was not identified, was responding to a complaint at about 11:15 a.m. on July 15, when he was charged in an “aggressive manner” by an average-size pit bull.
“The dog lunged at the officer biting the officer,” Fisk said in a press release. The dog, which was running at large, “continued to be aggressive . . . and again lunged at the officer and attempted to bite him a second time,” she added.
That’s when the officer shot the animal, Fisk said. She said the dog was transported to a local veterinarian’s office where it died of its wounds.
She said the investigation into the shooting is ongoing and expects to have the initial results sometime this week.
According to police department records, which were released by Fisk on Friday afternoon, Biddeford police first issued a warning for a dog at large to the pit bull’s owner, Mary Rowe, on March 2.
Then, on July 11, the landlord at 40 Pool St., Edward Lavertu, called police to say that his tenants had been complaining about the neighbor’s pit bull running loose and defecating in the driveway.
In his complaint, Lavertu also said his tenants “are scared the pit bull will come after them.”
On July 13, just two days before the dog was fatally shot, police responded to a third complaint about the pit bull running loose and issued an animal trespass warning to Rowe.
(Sun Chronicle - July 21, 2011)
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