Out on Patrol

Friday morning I patrolled Poppy Seed State Park. It is a fantastic park, it's right on the beach with overnight camping and beautiful trails to hike. This particular morning, while driving down the beach, a park visitor stopped me and told me about an aggressive dog in the camping area. I took down his number and got a description of the dog and the owners of the dog.

Before I approached the area I talked to another visitor regarding the aggressive dog and the dog owners. The man said the campers were up all night parting and the dog was snarling and running around freely. I thanked him and moved closer to the campsite.

Above, me on duty

You can see above, in the grassy area, a wild dog running around. The man I talked to earlier is the guy standing by the white R.V to the right. At a distance I watched the dog. The dog was clearly aggressive, so, I called up animal control and requested backup. When I pulled up to the campsite I didn't see the owners of the dog and figured they were asleep in the tent. I used my P.A to call out and a woman came out of the tent. I told her she needed to leash her dog or animal control will take the dog. Unfortunately, the woman didn't have a leash, so I offered up a rope I had in my unit. Below you can see the contact I made with the woman.

It's funny when you think everything is going well and it turns out bad. The woman ends up losing hold of the dog and it charges me. I drew my weapon and threatened to shoot the dog if she didn't take control. The dog kept charging, so I shot my gun, twice, and missed! The dog bites me in the torso and I shoot again only injuring the dog. I shot one more time and finally the dog lets go.

Eventually, my back up shows up. It turns out that there is another guy in the tent. My partner and I get him out of the tent and find he has a $50,000 warrant. My partner arrests him. Two other officers show up and an ambulance for me. I went off to the hospital and the other officers interviewed the woman and the arrested man. My partners end up finding 5 onces of marijuana and a bong in their campsite.

Above is the injured dog, the arrested man and my partners. Funny how a simple dog contact can turn out so outrageously wrong. I guess it was the luck of the dice on this crazy call. I hope the written report my partners and I put together will be efficient enough for our supervisor and the DA.