Found another article on dog attacks:
http://www.defendu.com/plan_dog.htm
"Have a Plan for the Dog
by Brad Parker
(Note: This article was originally written for the national magazine Guns and Weapons for Law Enforcement. The Nov. 2002 issue had the title on the cover as “A Backup’s Nightmare: A Pit Bull’s Got Your Partner, Make the Shot – Miss the Bystander!” )
I was assigned to a team of three other officers during a recent (May 2002) undercover warrant detail for a large southwestern agency.
We had a stack of warrants that had intelligence within the last 24 hours about the whereabouts of the subjects. We already made two arrests and narrowly missed two other subjects earlier in the day, so the intel on the warrants was very good.
The subject of this one warrant was a young tough, known to be a fighter. From the stats on his sheet we could see that he was a big guy too. We had back up from one additional officer from the local municipal police department. The city officer covered the street while we rolled up on the dilapidated house in an unmarked unit. Our team was all in plain clothes and we quickly surrounded the front of the house. Two of the team members split up and took a different corner of the house so each had a view of the side yards. I was the designated cover officer and I advanced up to the front porch with the team leader who was the contact officer.
When we approached the front of the house, we both passed through a gate of one of those three-foot high chain link fences people use to keep small children or poodles on the porch. As the cover officer, I tucked in my loose shirttail exposing my duty weapon and I pulled out my badge on the chain around my neck
I covered the front picture glass window while the team leader knocked on the front door. When he knocked I could hear a dog barking in the garage. The door opened and I could see a male with two small toddlers in diapers crowding his legs, curiously peering out at us.
As it turned out, this male was not our subject and the team leader asked him to step outside and keep the children inside the house. This guy was definitely not our man and his small physical stature and compliant nature allowed us to relax a notch or two.
As the man stepped out of the doorway, he produced his wallet to comply with the team leader’s request for ID. As the cover officer, I was continuing to stay in Condition Yellow and was intently watching the man’s hands, so the first of the dog I saw was as he flashed in front of the homeowner and came into my field of view. The tan and white pit bull was starting to leap toward my partner, hind legs flexed and front legs just leaving the porch.
To me it looked like a slow-motion video as I watched the thick-necked dog launch forward and sink his formidable teeth into my partner’s groin. I could see the muscles in the dog’s back shiver as it bit and shook back and forth, a muffled growl emerging from between it’s clenched jaws. It was the first time the dog had made a sound since it presumably dashed out of the door as the homeowner walked toward us.
A terrified, strangled cry came from my partner. Even though I was transfixed on the dog as it launched it’s attack, I could tell from the almost inhuman noise coming involuntarily from the other officer that he was hit and hit hard.
Something in the back of my mind told me that pit bulls rarely let go of a hold once they bite. I knew I had to shoot the dog to save my partner. We were barely more than an arm’s length from one another when the dog attacked and I was already gripping my Glock 19, it’s stubby barrel starting to clear leather. The attack happened so suddenly, so quickly that I was surprised that my mind was automatically covering all the options. Somehow I knew that I needed to make a contact shot on the dog -- I had to press the muzzle against him to ensure a decisive hit. As my draw cleared the holster and the 9mm started to come up, my mind continued to analyze the problem. It told me that I could not shoot the dog’s head, I would have to make a body shot. But where? I guessed that I would have to shoot through the chest cavity near the shoulder. As my weapon pushed out away from my body, another thought hit me, “I can’t shoot from this angle or the shot will go through the dog and hit my partner in the legs.” I began to step off at an angle to change the trajectory of the bullet’s path.
As I was stepping forward to touch the pistol to the dog’s shoulder, my computer “told” me that the 147-grain hollowpoint round would probably now ricochet off the hard concrete porch – but it also told me that the bullet would not angle toward the house where the kids were, nor would it angle toward the officer covering the corner of the house. My brain did a quick mental shrug and I somehow concluded that it was the best option available to me.
I started to take up the slack on the trigger when the homeowner’s arm came into my field of view. He was reaching in to grab the dog’s collar and he quickly and smoothly pulled the dog completely out of the picture, flinging the dog in through the doorway and abruptly shutting the door.
I was temporarily stunned. I was so close to actually pulling the trigger that it was difficult to return from the brink. At this point I was standing almost directly next to my partner. We looked at each other with wide-open eyes and then quickly looked at his groin to see the damage. Unbelievably, the dog had bit right on the officer’s fanny pack, which this officer routinely wears directly in front on his waist.
The dog’s nails had made some puncture marks through the officer’s Wrangler jeans, but aside from some scratches on his thighs, he was unhurt. His first words to me were, “He was biting on my gun and I was afraid to get my hands down there to try and draw it.”
In debriefing on the incident I was unhappy with some aspects of our performance, but happy with others.
We had planned so intently on dealing with a human subject that we were completely unprepared for dealing with a dog – even though we heard one barking in the garage when we made contact. We did not use the small porch fence to our advantage. It would have been a relatively simple matter to invite the homeowner to talk from the outside of the fence. We relaxed somewhat in dealing with the homeowner who was not our subject and was very cooperative.
On the plus side, I had just completed two straight days of annual firearms training and recertification so my draw was instinctive, quick and smooth. I had also kept my shirttail tucked in allowing an unobstructed draw. My mind had truly worked efficiently in stress mode, rationally covering a myriad of possibilities and results as I moved to make the hit. It seemed calm and reasoned. Details were exquisitely apparent –even the checkered backstrap of my Glock felt incredibly vivid as I made the grip on my pistol.
All I can say to others is: have a plan for dealing with the dog. In this instance we lucked out. The next time we might not be so lucky, but I’ll also be more prepared."
