Redlands police sergeant vilified for shooting at pit bull

CALIFORNIA -- A group of Forest Falls residents are at odds with police over an incident in their neighborhood last week in which an off duty Redlands police sergeant shot at a charging pit bull as he and his wife walked their dogs.

Redlands police Sgt. Ricky Smith and his wife were walking their dogs on Lower Pine Drive about 3:35 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 10 when a pit bull mix escaped its yard and charged toward them, police and witnesses said.

Fearing for his safety and that of his wife and their dogs, Smith said he pulled a 40-caliber Glock from his pocket and fired two shots at the dog.

Smith missed the dog but struck the front tire and rear bumper of the pickup belonging to the dog’s owner, William Wise, 33, police and witnesses said.

The shots scared off the dog, Smith said, adding that he used his own personal firearm, not his department-issued one. He said that by law, his occupation as a police officer allows him to carry a firearm on his person while he’s off duty without having to carry a concealed weapons permit.

A group of about 15 residents — men, women and chidren — were standing outside when the shooting occurred. They were incensed by the shooting and feel Smith was reckless in his actions and could have hurt someone. They say he should have taken other evasive measures, such as yelling at the dog to try and scare it off.

Smith stands by his actions and said he has nothing to hide.

“I can’t believe I’m the bad guy here,” Smith said in a telephone interview. “Everybody came out and they were just hostile to us. Nobody asked us if we were OK. They were just asking why I was shooting on their street. Nobody seemed to care that a pit bull got loose and almost attacked us.”

The news came as no surprise to Forest Falls resident Michelle Macri, who said loose dogs in the tight-knit mountain community have been a longstanding problem.

“We do have a problem with people containing animals in their yard and letting their animals run loose. I’ve lived up here for nearly 10 years and it’s always been an issue,” Macri said.

In 2010, pit bull and pit bull mix breeds comprised roughly 20 percent of all dogs in San Bernardino County’s animal shelter system. The problem forced the county and the cities of Highland and Yucaipa to impose mandatory spay and neuter ordinances for such breeds.

Witnesses to the Forest Falls incident demanded that responding sheriff’s deputy Paul Franklin conduct a field sobriety test on Smith, which Franklin did not do.

Sheriff’s spokeswoman Cindy Bachman said Franklin detected “no signs of impairment,” and that Smith agreed to pay for the damage done to Wise’s silver Ford pickup. She said a report on the incident is being written up, and that county animal control will also be notified.

Smith said his department is conducting an internal investigation, but he could not elaborate.

He disputes witness accounts that he shot into or toward the crowd of assembled people, and doesn’t believe they are being reasonable. He said he had not been drinking prior to the incident, as some are suspecting, In fact, Smith said he and his wife were just taking their dogs out for a quick walk around the block before he left for work.

“They’re saying I was drunk. They’re saying I was shooting into a crowd, None of that is true,” said Smith, a Redlands Police Department veteran of 21 years and retired Air Force Tech. Sgt.

Wise, the owner of the pit bull mix named Zuse, believes Smith overreacted, and that he did not hear his dog barking or growling prior to the shooting. He said it was the gunshots and Smith yelling and shouting obscenities that drew him out of his home.

Smith diagrees. He said Wise’s dog was barking, growling and “going crazy” before slipping under the fence and charging toward them.

Wise concurred that his dog escaped his front yard and has done so on other occasions. He never fixed the problem because he said he is a renter and he expected his landlord to do it. Now, he said he will place large rocks along the fence perimeter to keep his dog from getting out.

Still, Wise doesn’t believe Smith should have shot at his dog, and that his dog probably just wanted to play.

Smith isn’t buying it.

“That’s the typical pit bull owner response: ‘Oh, they’re friendly. They just want to play,’” Smith said.

As to the anger and emotion he displayed during the incident, Smith said he was just scared, not just for himself but for his wife and their pets. He doesn’t understand why the witnesses don’t understand that.

“They wanted to lynch us,” Smith said. “Where’s the outrage over the pit bull owner who refuses any responsibilty?”

(San Bernardino Sun - Aug 18 2013)