OHIO -- An Elyria police officer shot a pit bull seven times with an assault rifle after responding to 17th Street for a report of a man waving a gun.
Police arrested the dog’s owner, Sylvester Oliver, 63, of Elyria, for two counts of aggravated menacing, disorderly conduct persisting and dog at large.
Officers Fred Merrill, Paul Lesner, Terrence Kenneally and Benjamin Miracle were sent to 315 17th Street for reports of a man threatening his neighbor with a hand gun about 11 p.m. Tuesday.
Merrill said Oliver would not calm down and refused to stop causing a scene.
Oliver “was observed to be intoxicated and had a strong odor of alcohol on his person,” Merrill wrote in his report. Oliver’s speech was slurred as he yelled, Merill stated. A neighbor said Oliver threatened him with a semi-automatic pistol after the neighbor told Oliver to stop yelling at his sister.
Oliver lifted his shirt and showed the man the handgun, saying he would shoot him for telling him what to do. The neighbor then called police. A witness told police he saw Oliver waving his gun around and yelling at a woman.
While officers spoke to Oliver, Lesner said he heard a dog at the side garage door “barking, growling and smashing in to it.”
The door burst open and a white 100 pound pit bull came running out at full speed. Lesner wrote that the dog appeared “extremely aggressive, agitated and wanting to do harm to the officers.”
As the dog ran past Lesner — focused on the officers nearest to Oliver — Lesner shot it three times in the back and lower back area with an M4 rifle.
When the dog attempted to get back to its feet, “snarling and attempting to bite,” Lesner wrote that he fired four more rounds in to the animal.
The report doesn’t say if the dog was killed.
Oliver was arrested and taken to the Lorain County jail. No weapon was found.
(The Morning Journal - Sept 13, 2012)
