Three Dogs Shot During Police Chase
Officer Encounters Three Dogs While Chasing Assault Suspect
POSTED: 12:49 pm PDT September 13, 2004
LOS ANGELES -- A man plans to file a legal claim against the city after police shot and killed his dog and wounded two others in his back yard while pursuing an assault suspect.
The officer crossed through the back yard of Luis Mendivil late Saturday night in Hemet, about 35 miles south of Riverside. The officer encountered the man's three pit bull terriers while chasing the suspect, who was later arrested in a nearby yard.
Mendivil was not home at the time but his two nephews were watching television in the house.
"I just heard 'boom, boom, boom, boom,' and then the dogs started yelping," said 12-year-old Adrian Mendivil.
He and his brother went to see what happened but officers ordered them inside.
Police Sgt. Jeff Pinney said Sunday that one pit bull bit an officer and a police dog. He said the officers used pepper spray before resorting to their guns.
"In an ideal world, we would have had time to plan and get less lethal guns," he said.
Mendivil's mother, Hilda, said she saw an officer fire three shots at the family's 6-month-old pit bull terrier, Root Beer. The dog survived. Its mother, Maria, was killed. A third dog, Luigi, was shot in the jaw and survived.
Mendivil, 27, said his dogs have never shown aggression toward people and that there were no signs of pepper spray use on the two animals when he took them to his veterinarian the next day in Mexico. He questions whether police followed proper procedures.
In June, Beaumont city officials agreed to pay a Beaumont man $5,000 after police killed his Rottweiler while responding to a silent alarm call. They later learned that the officers were at the wrong house and that the alarm had come from the man's neighbor.
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