Minnesota: St. Paul officer fatally shoots dog that bit four people

MINNESOTA -- A St. Paul police officer fatally shot a dog Sunday after it bit four people and as it charged at other passersby and paramedics, according to the police department.

The Rottweiler had jumped a fence in his owner’s Macalester-Groveland yard and was running nearby, in the area of the nearby Edgcumbe Recreation Center. His 82-year-old owner had been trying to catch him, said Steve Linders, a police spokesman.

Many people were outside Sunday afternoon, enjoying the warm weather, when the dog began to bite people, Linders said.

The dog bit a 45-year-old woman in the ankle on Griggs Street, just south of the rec center.

“She swung her purse frantically at the dog in an attempt to get him to stop biting her,” Linders said.

A 31-year-old man approached to try to help the woman, and the dog ran up and bit him in the calf and buttocks, according to Linders.

Also attacked was a 51-year-old woman, who had seen the dog before and was concerned about kids in the area, Linders said. She was trying to get the dog to stop when he bit her all over her arms; she also had a large bite to her lower leg.

A 34-year-old man in his residence heard a woman screaming and ran out to help, Linders said. He saw a dog was running loose and had bit other people, and the dog ran to him and bit him in his upper leg.

Paramedics treated three of the victims at the scene; the 31-year-old man declined medical attention, Linders said.

Police were called about 4:30 p.m. The dog’s owner told an officer that “the dog was not friendly to people and he believed the dog had bitten people before,” and police also heard from an animal control officer that the dog had been “very aggressive” in the past, Linders said.

Both police and animal control officers tried for at least 20 minutes to contain the dog to keep him from reaching other people, but the dog broke away, Linders said. When the dog ran toward paramedics and other people at Griggs Street and Wellesley Avenue, “officers believed if they let the dog continue toward the crowd, someone else could be at risk of being injured by the dog,” Linders said. An officer fatally shot the dog.

(TwinCities - March 7, 2016)