News "Charging" dog shot at, child hit.

[surge]

http://www.timesunion.com/news/us/article/Family-Girl-4-shot-by-officer-firing-at-dog-is-6358370.php

A 4-year-old girl who was shot in the leg when a police officer fired at a dog is recovering after surgery as her family questions how the officer responded.

Ava Ellis was hit accidentally on the afternoon of June 19 when an officer fired at a charging dog at a home in Whitehall, in central Ohio, according to Columbus police. The department said another relative had flagged down the officer for help after the girl's mother cut herself on glass.

Ava's parents, Andrea and Brad Ellis, and their attorney disputed the police account Tuesday and alleged the policeman fired unnecessarily and acted recklessly with children nearby on the porch. They say the roughly 40-pound dog, a bulldog mix named Patches, was retreating inside from the porch when the officer fired.
__________________________________________

Fire the cop! There is no excuse for the recklessness with which he approached the situation. It has become the mindset now to shoot dogs on sight, and if a child gets shot, well, they shouldn't have had a dog and none of it would have happened.

 

[Debi]

This kind of thing is happening all too often. And I thought officers where supposed to take into account "little" things like kids and people in the line of fire!!! This auto shoot the dog thing is ridicules. Most dogs will challenge if they see a threat, but few actually go full on to attack. And many can be handled easily enough by voice commands.

I've handled some mighty big dog confrontations simply by voice. Never been full out attacked yet. Even in a uniform as an EMT/paramedic, I never had to back off my patient because of a dog. It's all in how you handle it!