“Gary Parsley says the shooting that happened on Chandler Drive in Whitehall, Friday afternoon, happened in an instant,” w10tv.com reports. “’Everything happened really fast,’ he said. Parsley says a Columbus Police Officer came to his house to follow up on a hit-and-skip case Parsley says he was a victim of two weeks ago. He says when the officer stepped outside – a woman, two houses down, came running out and pleading for help. ‘She was wanting medical attention for her sister,’ Parsley said. ‘That’s why she called the guy over there.’ Parsley went back inside his house. A few seconds later he heard the gunshot.” Mercy killing? Not even close . . .
According to CPD, when the officer approached the house the family’s dog charged him.
“The officer fires one shot at the dog, misses the dog and accidentally shoots a four-year-old in the leg,” CPD spokeswoman, Denise Alex-Bouzounis, said.
There’s a reason for Rule Four – know your target and what’s beyond it. To prevent people from shooting something they didn’t intend to shoot. Ah, but did the unnamed police officer need to shoot Fido? As you might imagine, that’s a source of some debate.
“They brought the girl out,” he said. “She wasn’t on a stretcher. One of the paramedics was carrying her. She had a blanket around her and there was a little bit of blood on the blanket, but she seemed to be conscious. Her head was poking around [and] she wasn’t, like, screaming or crying that I could tell.”
Parsley doesn’t understand why the officer felt the need to shoot in the first place.
“[The officer] was a big guy and they have tasers and clubs and stuff,” he said. “I don’t know why you would raise a gun. I really don’t agree with him just pulling his gun out and trying to shoot the dog.”
According to Alex-Bouzounis, when asked about the breed of the dog, she says it was a mutt and would not specify on its size.
If the canine in question’s the size of a miniature schnauzer, Officer Shielded from Responsibility Unlike Any Other Civilian Gun Owner is gonna be in a lot of trouble. Or not. But in this house, for sure.
Anyway, the story makes no further mention of the person who originally needed medical assistance. At the risk of seeming insensitive, I wonder if they got a two-for-one deal on the meat wagon. [h/t JW]