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Police kill charging dog

• A dog is killed after charging two police officers Thursday, police records show.

Joshua Brown

ALBANY — Two Albany police officers will undergo review by the department’s internal affairs division after firing their weapons at dogs in apparent self-defense in two unrelated incidents, an APD spokesperson said Monday. One dog died as a result of the incidents.

At about 5 p.m. Sunday, an officer responding to a home on Elva Street entered a fenced backyard in response to an activated alarm, the incident report shows.

After gaining entry to the yard, the officer was approached by two dogs. The officer warned the dogs verbally to retreat, the report shows, but after the dogs continued advancing, the officer fired a shot toward the dog at her right, missing it but causing the dogs to retreat.

The officer then also retreated. The reporting officer for the incident was Patrolman Latasha Williams, according to the report. It was unclear from the report whether the officer intentionally missed the animal.

In a similar incident Thursday, two officers responded to a home on East Residence Avenue in response to an “apprehend and detain” order, a police report shows.

The two officers knocked on the front door of the home and were walking to the side door when a pit bull charged them.

One of the officers pulled his service weapon and fatally shot the dog in the back of the neck once the dog was about 2 feet away from the officers, according to the report.

No one answered at the residence, which was not registered with the Water, Gas & Light Commission, the report states. Neighbors indicated they were not sure who lived at the home.

Albany Police Department spokesperson Phyllis Banks said the department has no set policy for officers to follow when confronted by vicious animals, although it does have a “shoot-to-stop” policy.

The policy, she said, requires that any officer who determines that deadly force is necessary in an incident should shoot to stop the aggressor and not kill, whether the aggressor be human or animal.

Because the officers did use their firearms while on duty, their direct supervisors must fill out a “deadly force” report, which eventually goes to the police chief before being handed over to the internal affairs division, Banks said.

Both officers have filled out deadly force reports, and are “in the process” of having their cases forwarded for review to internal affairs, Banks said.

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