WISCONSIN -- Gary Hebert, of Marshfield, is upset and angry after Marshfield police shot and killed his pit bull Wednesday night.
An officer shot the dog at about 8 p.m. Wednesday in the Oak Grove Terrace mobile home park, 1407 N. Peach Ave., because the dog charged at him, according to the police report.
The officer was pursuing the dog on foot through the mobile home park after police received complaints of an aggressive dog at large in the 1000 block of East Kalsched Street.
Steve Lopez said he called police after the dog ran toward him barking and growling while he was walking his Rottweiler. A bystander, Ryan Delis, helped push the dog away with a stick.
“I felt nervous for the little kids playing out there with their Yorkie,” Lopez said.
The dog growled and jogged toward police who arrived on the scene, then backed away and meandered through streets and yards toward the mobile home park, said Marshfield Police Department Lt. Rick Gramza.
The dog sprinted at the officer, who shot the dog once before it fell to the ground, got up and lunged at the officer a second time. The officer shot the dog again, and the dog retreated to the deck of a mobile home where it collapsed, Gramza said.
“I heard the dog growling and thought it was attacking a person or another dog and that’s why it was shot,” Lopez said.
Gramza said the officer called for Marshfield ordinance control officers to respond and capture the dog, but “the dog was closing the distance so fast, the officer, for his own safety, had no other recourse but to discharge his firearm.”
“There was no guarantee a Taser or pepper spray would necessarily work in this situation,” he said.
Carrie Horn, a friend of Hebert who was watching the dog at her home, said the shooting was unjustified.
Horn said she thought someone was throwing fireworks at the dog when she heard the first gunshot, and she rushed out to her porch with her daughter. She said the dog started retreating to the porch for safety when the officer shot it two more times.
“My dog wasn’t running toward (the officer),” Hebert said. “He was running to the porch and the guy panicked and shot my dog.”
“What if my daughter had come out and run to the dog?” Horn said. “She could have been shot, too.”
Pamela Hookstadt, Horn’s neighbor who witnessed the shooting from her window, said she did not see the dog charge at the officer.
“It was poor judgment on the part of the police officer,” she said.
Hookstadt and Horn described the dog as friendly and gentle around neighborhood children.
“(The dog) looked big and scary, but he was a big baby,” Horn said. “Gary raised his dogs to be very obedient.”
“I’m devastated,” Hebert said. “He was a good dog.”
No citations have been issued to Hebert in connection with the incident. Gramza said police have responded to dog-at-large and barking dog complaints at the owner’s home in the past.
Hebert said he plans to take legal action against the Marshfield Police Department.
“These people need to be held accountable for their actions,” he said. “This was just uncalled for. People can’t just run around shooting people’s dogs.”
(Sheboygan Press - July 11, 2013)
