FLORIDA -- A Palm Bay police officer was bitten this afternoon by a pit bull after responding to a complaint about the dog at a house on Eatonia Street.
At about 1:15 p.m., Officer Phil Erwin went to the home of an older woman who couldn’t get her neighbor’s 120-pound pit bull to leave her garage, according to Yvonne Martinez, department spokesperson. Animal control wouldn’t come unless the dog was captive. The dog wasn’t being aggressive, but it wouldn’t leave the woman’s garage.
Erwin tried to get the dog out of the garage while its owner, a neighbor, tried to call it out onto the street.
The dog, named “Bruce,” began to act “a little manic,” Martinez said.
“All of the sudden, he stopped and looked at Officer Erwin,” she said.
Then the dog lunged at him, from about five feet away, and clamped onto his left hand.
“He felt the dog was pulling him down,” Martinez said. “He could feel the dogs tooth driving into his thumb and forefinger, that little arch area in the hand.”
Erwin had his gun in his other hand. He worked to maneuver the dog into a position where he could get a clean shot, and also tried to twist his hand out of the dog’s mouth.
The dog released, but was still acting aggressively. Erwin took a shot, but missed. The dog ran back to its owner, who got it under control and brought it home.
Erwin was taken to Palm Bay Hospital to be treated for the bite, his wound required three stitches.
The owner of the pit bull turned it over to animal control. The dog’s vaccines are up-to-date but it will be quarantined.
(Florida Today - Nov 3, 2012)
