This Deserves More Investigation: Stories Differ After an Off-Duty Officer Shoots a Pit Bull

The Chicago cop claims the dog was going after his son. The neighbors saw something else.

Accusations are flying after an off-duty police officer in Chicago shot a neighbor's Pit Bull while on a walk with his son, and the Independent Police Review Authority is now investigating the incident.

According to the officer, an eight-year veteran of the force, he was out with his young son on North Oketo Avenue, when Maximus, a neighbor's 4-month-old Pit Bull, charged at them. He shot the dog eight times.

"It's supposed to be on a leash. If that dog is on a leash this never happens," the officer told NBC Chicago. "[My son] wanted to ride his bike. So he's riding down the sidewalk. As I'm walking down the street the dog comes out of the gangway charging at him."

Neighbors, however, dispute those events. They say Maximus never barked. They say the boy was nearly a block away during the shooting, according to CBS Chicago.

The dog's owner, Samantha Maglaya, also disputes the story.

“I ran to my dog and my kids were standing all around him screaming and crying,” she told CBS Chicago. “There was no son there. The whole time I was holding my dog and he was bleeding all over us and the kids are screaming and crying, his son was not there." 

The dog had accidentally escaped from the backyard after her kids left the gate open. The dog made it to the front of the house, where he was shot.

Maglaya is shocked at the outcome, remembering a dog who was gentle and kind: "He would sit in the yard and listen to the birds. He didn't even bark. He never growled. He was the biggest baby."

“How do you explain to your kids police officers are nice people if they’re shooting your puppy?” she said. “He was extremely friendly. He didn’t bark, he didn’t growl. There was no mistaking this dog for being mean at all.”

The officer's wife also spoke to the Chicago Sun-Times and provided her version and interpretation of events.

“He’s 5 years old. He was on his bike. This is a Pit Bull. Do you want to take that chance on a 5-year-old?" she said. "I know that my son’s life could have been in danger ... and the fact that my son was protected, that’s what I care about.”

She also said that they had previously asked the family to keep the dog on a leash.

A police sergeant interviewed the officer and the family, and the Independent Police Review Authority is investigating the incident. We'll let you know the results once they're released. 

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Girl, 15, Watches Off-Duty Cop Shoot Her Dog

Carli was shot to death by an off-duty police officer

An off-duty police officer shot and killed a family dog in front the dog’s 15-year-old girl. According to new reports, the officer said the pit bull, Carli, charged at one of his smaller dogs and had his Rottweiler by the neck as he and his wife were walking their three dogs. Sierra Blaylock, 15, said Carli was just trying to play with the rottie, and that the officer mistook that as aggression.

Carli had escaped out her an open garage door, and Sierra was trying to get her. The officer told police that he kicked the dog to make her release his dog. When that didn’t work, out came the gun.

Sierra watched her dog’s last moments: “”She tried getting back up and running away, but she couldn’t do it…She looked up at me once. She couldn’t again.”

Her mother, Leticia Clark, says her dog got along with everyone, and was a great family pet, even with her infant. “I’m outraged. I just think it’s so wrong. It was so excessive. There was no reason,” she said. She thinks the Vallejo cop took a tremendous risk, firing his gun in a neighborhood full of kids in the nearby town of Vacaville, and with her daughter so close by. “Just because he’s an officer doesn’t mean accidents can’t happen.”

Carli with Clark's baby

In addition, Clark says “I talked to a number of officers…I was told on scene there was no injury to the couple’s dogs…My dog is not an attack dog. She had obedience training.”

Sierra says she was not far from her dog the officer shot her. Maybe a house distance away. But police say the officer put no one at risk. According to Lt. John Carli, “The shots that were fired were in close proximity to the actual officer and not in the direction of people.”

People in this family neighborhood are shocked. “My dog does the same thing,” Matt Schlief said. “So it kinda makes me feel like if, hey, my dog ever happened to accidentally get out and run toward someone, is he going to get shot?”

The cop will not be facing charges. The family won’t pursue legal action.

Here are are again, Dogsters. Another cop vs. dog. I wasn’t there, I don’t know what happened. But there does seem to be a growing trend toward shooting dogs first, asking questions later. I feel really bad for the girl, who had to watch her dog die this way. That’s a memory that will never go away.

Sources: News10 and KTXL.

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