SAN ANTONIO – A San Antonio police officer is on administrative duty after allegedly shooting three dogs and killing two of them, including his department-assigned K-9.
According to a police report, the officer’s neighbor’s dogs broke through his backyard fence and attacked the K-9.
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The neighbor, Amanda Harris, spoke with KSAT about the incident.
“I just wish it would’ve turned out differently, especially because we’re neighbors,” Harris said.
The officer, whose identity has not been released, has 16 years of service and is a K-9 handler. During the alleged attack, the officer said he attempted to separate the dogs but was unsuccessful.
Following the attempt to separate the dogs, police said the off-duty officer fired multiple rounds at the dogs attacking his K-9 to stop the attack. All three dogs were hit by the gunfire.
One of the neighbor’s dogs, Dutch, died on the scene. The K-9 and the neighbor’s other dog, Pearl, were both taken to a veterinary clinic. SAPD said the department-assigned K-9 later died.
“She’s still bleeding,” Harris said. “They don’t know if she’s going to make it. They said it’s touch and go. She had two bullet wounds on her.”
Harris said she didn’t hear anything during the incident until a woman screamed.
“There was no dogs whining, no barking, no nothing,” Harris said. “We immediately went over there as soon as we heard the lady scream.”
“My husband ran over there and started calling our dogs, like ‘come back, come back,’ and then the shots rang out,” Harris said. “It’s an unfortunate situation that didn’t have to happen.”
Now, two dogs are dead, the officer is on administrative duty, and Harris is just hoping her dog, Pearl, recovers.
Harris’s husband was cited for two misdemeanors by animal control for Dutch. One of the violations was ‘destruction of property’ and the other was for Dutch being ‘free of restraint,’ officials said.
“He was let out in his own backyard,” Harris said. You don’t put your dogs on leashes in their backyard.”
The SAPD Shooting Team and Internal Affairs units are conducting separate investigations into the incident.
KSAT was informed that there may be a video of the incident, but it’s unconfirmed where the video originated. KSAT has requested a video from SAPD.