PENNSYLVANIA -- Easton police shot and killed a pit bull that had gotten loose from a backyard in the 1400 block of Northampton Street this afternoon.
Sgt. Tom Smith said police responded after receiving a report that two dogs, one of which was a 2-year-old pit bull named Xavier, were loose. An officer arrived to find that the one dog had cornered a woman sitting on a chair with her two children and did not appear to be backing away, Smith said.
The officer, whose identity police have not yet released, attempted at first to lure the dog away from the area but then reached for his weapon and shot it twice after claiming it had "made an aggressive move" toward him, Smith said.
A second police officer arrived on the scene during the incident but the initial responder was the one who shot the dog, Smith said.
Smith said three different eyewitnesses have corroborated the officer's report and stressed that the shooting was conducted in a "safe manner" that put no people at risk.
"The only danger to the public here was that dog," Smith said.
The dog belonged to owners Autumn Kunsman and boyfriend Jim Carpenter. Kunsman lives at the address where the shooting occurred. Together they own eight dogs, five of which are puppies they were getting ready to put up for adoption.
Carpenter said he and Kunsman were sitting inside watching television when they heard the shots. He claimed that another one of their female dogs had first gotten loose and Xavier went to go follow her. No other dogs were harmed during the incident.
"Everybody knows who those dogs belongs to," Carpenter said. "Nobody came through the back door to knock on it."
He questions why police didn't ask him to retrieve the dogs before shooting one of them dead.
"If the dogs are out here and they're being a threat and there's two police officers here, why isn't one standing there watching while the other one comes in here and knocks on the door and says 'Come get your dogs?'" he asked.
Carpenter said the dog that was shot was only friendly and had "never made a threatening gesture towards anyone."
"I just don't get it," he said.
Neighbor Pete Douglas, who claims he was an eyewitness to the shooting, isn't backing the police officer's story.
The dog was just wandering out the yard at the time and not posing a threat to anyone, Douglas said.
"He shot him twice for no reason," Douglas said. "The dog was not attacking him, the dog was not being aggressive. ... He shot him for, I swear on everything I love, for no reason."
As of 5:30 p.m., police were still on the scene conducting their report of the incident and the dog had not been transported away.
Smith said he understands the emotion of Carpenter and others upset by the shooting but said that although unfortunate, the officer's actions were necessary.
"Most of us are dog owners," Smith said. "That's the last thing we want to have to do."
(The Express-Times - June 15, 2013)
