Dog lovers showered Sgt. John Joseph with praise for sparing the life of a dog that charged him while he investigated the scene of a stabbing Thursday.
Others were impressed by the fancy foot work Joseph put to use as he avoided the dog's lunges with his gun drawn.
Flint Journal photographer Austin Anthony, despite the dark night, captured the intense moment in an series of frames that show the encounter could have turned out much worse.
And Joseph's moves didn't go unnoticed by his fellow officers, who posted one of the photos on a wall at Flint Police Headquarters alongside a picture of Kevin Costner in Dances With Wolves.
Joseph was searching for evidence in a stabbing on Nebraska Avenue near North Vernon Avenue around 10 p.m. Thursday when the dog ran aggressively toward him barking.
Joseph prepared to shoot the dog in self defense, but held his fire and dodged the animal's advances until its owner came out of a house and secured it.
Neither the dog nor the sergeant were injured.
It turns out Joseph's show of restraint wasn't entirely out of compassion for the dog.
Joseph said part of the reason he didn't shoot was because the animal was too close to him to safely fire.
He said a charging, large, aggressive dog can pose a serious, immediate danger to a person's life and he would not have hesitated to fire had he been able to get a shot off safely.
Children sitting on a nearby porch recognized the gravity of the situation and ran inside when the saw the dog lunging and the sergeants gun drawn.
The victim in the stabbing that night was left in critical condition.
Police said the 28-year-old was involved in a fight in the street before he was found stabbed and taken to Hurley Medical Center.
Police couldn't find a weapon in the stabbing — which Joseph was searching for when he was attacked by the dog.
(MLive - Sept 6, 2011)
