Only 11 news talked to the man who fired a warning shot to get the dog away from those kids. It happened around 6:30 p.m. on Friday in a neighborhood near Jetwing Drive and Hancock Expressway. Officers were dispatched along with Humane Society Officers to the 4200 block of Charleston Drive in reference to a vicious animal and shots fired call.
11 News also talked to a kid who was in that playground when the dog started attacking. Kendall Johnson and 11-year-old Joseph Williams told me kids were playing with the dog and showed me where everyone was right before the dog became mean and aggressive, attacking a little girl.
"He tackled her and dragged her by her hair and started scratching her and bit her," Williams said.
He said there were about 9-10 kids out on the playground at the time and all of them were very scared.
"I was scared. I was like, this dog is very vicious," Williams told us.
Investigators said “Capone,” a brown and white pit bull wearing a green, multi-colored collar, was loose near the playground of the townhomes. The dog bit two young children before he was distracted by a citizen who used a bicycle to defend himself from the dog. Williams and Johnson said it was their uncle who started to fend off the dog with a bicycle.
"My uncle came in and he started pushing a bike and was like get back! He was telling it get back and scaring it and he had to work his way to the car," Williams said.
Police said after this citizen escaped from the dog, the dog charged a second citizen, Cody Turner, who was carrying a handgun.
"That’s when the dog saw me and decided I was next I guess," Turner said.
Turner is owner of a pit bull himself and he told us he never wanted to shoot the dog, but felt he had to diffuse the situation. As the dog leapt at him, that's when he fired a warning shot.
"I didn't want to kill the dog if I didn't have to, it's not my place anyway and that's when I fired the warning shot into the dirt, he decided to run off, and that's when the owner showed up," Turner said.
Johnson said the incident is still tough for this close-knit neighborhood to take in.
"I’ve never seen that happen before, never, never," Johnson told us.
Both Williams and Turner told us they saw the dog leave with 27-year-old owner Rodney Ingram, but police were told a different story. Police told us Ingram stated he did not know where the dog had gone.
Ingram was cited for two counts of unlawful ownership of a dangerous dog. The dog has not been located. Anyone with knowledge of the dog’s whereabouts is asked to contact the Humane Society in reference to case A12-011807.
(KKTV - May 20, 2012)
No comments:
Post a Comment