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Crime & Safety

Phoenixville Police Shoot, Kill Threatening Dog

The animal was shot near Barkley Elementary School on Monday.

A dog that appeared to be part pit bull was shot and killed by on Monday after it went on a rampage, The Mercury is reporting. The animal was shot once before later dying at the vet.

The department initially received a call about a brown dog—Chief William Mossman said the animal looked like a large pit bull—barking at people near Valley Forge Self Storage at around 2:50 p.m., but it was gone by the time officers responded. A little over an hour later, officers received another call about the dog, now near .

“It was biting tires on cars, barking,” Mossman told The Mercury. “One lady was too frightened to leave her car. Another guy was in a building. Everybody was basically trapped where they were.”

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Mossman said officers located the dog, but it took an aggressive posture and stood its ground. A passerby then told police she knew who the dog’s owner was. When two officers knocked on the door of the owner’s nearby house, a woman acknowledged the dog was hers, but said she didn’t know it had gotten out.

At this point, the dog emerged from behind a hedge formation on the owners’ property. It charged one of the officers, before backing off when he pulled out his gun. With the owner screaming orders at the animal, alternately in English and Spanish, the dog barking and growling, and joggers suddenly on the street behind him, Mossman said the officer—a former Marine—fired a single shot into the animal when it charged a second time.

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“(The officer) wanted to give the dog every opportunity,” the chief explained to The Mercury, characterizing the shooting as an unfortunate last resort.

“It’s our responsibility, we have to protect the public. The officer was protecting himself and the crowd.”

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