The dog, which the owner told police was a pit bull variety, witnessed the argument and became upset. It attacked the couple, Alan and Brenda Tibbits, while their son was sleeping, Topeka police Cpl. Louis Cortez said outside the home at 1823 N.W. Polk.
Cortez said the commotion woke the son, also named Alan Tibbits, who tried unsuccessfully to intervene. The attack only stopped when the son fired two shots from a handgun into the ceiling. He then locked the dog in a bedroom and called 911.
The Topeka Police Department, the fire department, animal control officers and emergency medical responders responded to the scene.
The father, 52, had wounds on his arms and legs and was transported to a hospital. The mother, 49, had wounds on her arms and buttocks.
Neither had sustained life-threatening injuries, Cortez said.
He said the parents and son live together at the residence.
Police seized the handgun to check whether it is owned legally and because there is an ordinance against firing shots within the city, Cortez said.
The dog, a male about 6 or 7 years old, is now in quarantine at a local veterinarian’s office to determine whether it had any illnesses. The family has relinquished ownership of the animal, meaning that it will be destroyed after 10 days of quarantine, said officer Linda Halford, of the police department’s Animal Control Unit.
The family didn’t have a city-issued license for the animal and was fined $30.
Halford said dogs that are reported to her division in relation to attacks or other violations usually aren’t licensed.
(Topeka Capital Journal - Dec 29, 2012)
