Cops Fatally Shot the Lunging Pit Bull That Never Was

Some dogs get bigger and scarier upon retelling the legend. Unlike the boys in The Sandlot, however, this concocted legend was used to justify blasting a dog, instead of befriending it.

Such a legend had investigators in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho, truly believing in the beast – which they described as a “vicious” pit bull, saying it lunged at the officer.

The problems is, of course, that it’s not possible.

Does the upper-right picture look like a pit bull to you? It was a 2-year-old black lab named Arfie who was described as not having a mean bone in his body.

Police were on the lookout, yesterday, for a guy in a white van who was thought to be looking at children from a parking lot, after owners of a coffee shop reported suspicious behavior that they thought could be connected to a child luring case.

According to the department, an officer approached the van, allegedly with an open window, with his gun drawn and he said “a pit bull lunged at his face.” So he fired one round into the dog’s chest and Arfie later died.

Owner Craig Jones wasn’t even in his vehicle – he was eating breakfast nearby. “This still isn’t even real to me,” he said to KREM 2 News. Imagine finding out after breakfast that your dog is dead because you were thought to be a perv and your dog, a pit bull.

This is not the first time cops have simply shot at dogs “BECAUSE PIT BULL!”

In Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2012, an officer responded to a call from the Sanchez family. Mrs. Sanchez, outside and seven months pregnant, said her two pit bulls simply walked out – no growling, no charging, when her husband unlatched the door. The officer yelled for her to grab them and when she bent down to grab one by the waist he had already fired a round! In her direction – two steps from the door. It grazed the lip of one and killed the other in the neck. The husband started yelling about it, demanding to know the reason for the shooting. Response? “HE WAS A PIT BULL…” But then he didn’t lower the weapon – he was still pointing it at the wife and surviving dog.

As Mrs. Sanchez pointed out, pit bull or not, there are other options.

Sadly, for Jones and his late dog, police didn’t identify much of anything.

KREM reports:

Coeur d’Alene OD leaders said the officer who shot the dog was distraught following the incidence. Authorities also said they believe the child predator who has been spotted in a similar white van is still on the loose.

Are these the types of justifications for randomly blasting away people’s dogs? The word “distraught” juxtaposed with “child predator” and “still on the loose.” Is that supposed to make people feel better about it in their minds?

If this is the typical reaction to fear for safety, where no dogs have successfully killed a police officer before, then another career option is recommended post haste – for everyone’s safety.