The dog, a 4-year-old Rottweiler named Lady, is home recovering after its bullet wounds were stitched. Although the 95-pound canine underwent surgery to remove the bullet, a fragment remains in the animal's neck, owner Richard Stotler said Monday.
“Meet the mean dog the cops said they had to shoot,” Stotler said Monday night, as the dog walked out of the door looking for a pat on the head.
She wagged her tail and licked a reporter's hands after a rub on the top of her head. A white sock on the dog's left foot prevents her from scratching the injuries, Stotler said.
“She has three bullet wounds and one nearly took her left eye out,” Stotler said.
Holly Hill police officials said an officer had to shoot the dog after they went to the home at 11:04 p.m. Friday to look for Josey Bobbitt, a woman wanted for violation of probation for solicitation of prostitution.
Police went to the home after a driver's license showed Bobbitt lived at 409 Elsie Drive, a department news release states.
While at the house the officer was confronted by two dogs in the fenced backyard of the home. The dogs started barking at the officer, who attempted to retreat from the yard. As the officer backed away from the dogs, the Rottweiler lunged aggressively at the officer, police said. When the dog lunged at the officer a second time, the officer was in fear of being attacked and fired his service weapon two times at the dog, police officials said.
Stotler said Monday he did not see any reason for the officer to enter his backyard, especially after he told them he did not know who Bobbitt was and that she did not live there. After about 10 minutes of talking with officers, Stotler said he closed the door and went back to watch television in his living room with his back door open. Two minutes later, he heard gunshots, he said.
“I ran through the front door with my hands raised asking them what they had done,” Stotler said. “They started yelling at me to get on the ground, handcuffed me and put me in the back of a car.”
Stotler said his girlfriend, Crystal Hightshoe, followed a trail of blood and found Lady hiding in their bedroom closet and started putting ice packs on her wounds. After officers realized what was going on , they released Stotler and started shouting at him to get the dog to take it to a an emergency animal clinic.
According to police, the dog was taken in a police car to the Emergency Animal Care Center at 696 S. Young St. in Ormond Beach. The city is picking up the vet bill, said police Capt. Steve Aldrich.
“The bill right now is $3,018.76,” Stotler said. “But she has to go back in 10 days to be checked out and get her stitches removed.”
Aldrich declined to release more details on the incident Monday, saying his department is conducting a thorough investigation of all aspects related to the call for service at the home. The captain also declined to release the name of the officer who shot the dog, citing the ongoing investigation. Police still have not been able to find Bobbitt, Aldrich said Monday.
Meanwhile, Stotler said he is upset about the shooting of the friendly dog he rescued from a Rottweiler organization in Miami in August 2012. That was the same time he bought the home on Elsie Drive and moved in there.
Stotler said his girlfriend and his two dogs are traumatized and Lady refuses to go outside at dark now. In an effort to bring attention to what Stotler called “a senseless and reckless shooting” by police, Stotler launched a Facebook page “Justice for Lady” on Sunday and has already gotten 648 likes, he said. “This is an effort to stop acts like this,” Stotler said of his social media page. “This happens all the time against, Rottweilers, German shepherds, Doberman and other big dogs and we need to stop these acts based on appearance.”
Editor's note: Bobbitt lived at 409 Elsie Drive and the animal hospital is at 696 S. Young St. in Ormond Beach, and not as originally reported.
(Daytona Beach News-Journal - Dec 30, 2013)
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