Cops shoot dogs in front of Pennsylvania high school

Philadelphia - When a stray dog got into a pickup truck at a red light outside the high school in Chester, Pa, a fight ensued. Police officers responding to a call about the dog fight opened fire and shot the dogs five times with a pistol and once with a shotgun.

Residents are shocked and demanding answers as to the reaction of the police officers, and whether this was within police procedure for handling such a situation.

The incident happened on Friday at around noon, when the stray jumped into the pickup truck and started a fight with the owner's dog. When the dogs couldn't be separated, police were called, but witnesses were stunned at the reaction of the officers, caught on cell phones as it happened. One police officer shot at the dogs with his pistol five times, and then the other fired with one blast from a shotgun.

All of this happened literally right in front of the Chester High School during school and business hours, on a busy street of the Philadelphia suburb.

NBCNews.com interviewed Tehran Freeman, who is himself a dog owner and who lives down the block from the incident. He captured the shooting on video with his cell phone and was outraged at how the situation was handled by the police.

"I don't care how bad they try to make Chester seem, this is not a war zone, you don't do things like that," he said.

"I thought them as the police should be held to a higher standard and would have some type of procedure for breaking it up than actually pulling out your pistols in front of the high school."

According to Freeman, the larger and more aggressive dog of the two appeared to be a pit bull and was wearing a leash. The other, smaller dog did not have a leash and it was unclear who exactly the owners were.

However, as he said, what happened next was the "last thing that I thought would happen" when the police officers opened fire. "It wasn't secure at all, I know bullets can ricochet and anything else - you're trying to shoot two animals in the back of a metal vehicle, that bullet can go anywhere."

Freeman wanted to know why animal control didn't handle the incident, but apparently there is only one animal control officer for the area and he was not available at that time.

Freeman did add that some of the cops in the city seemed as upset as the residents. "One of the officers actually looked very, very shaken up about it," he said.

The Chester police apparently told NBCPhiladelphia.com that the incident is under investigation.

Watching the video, it does seem like a very extreme measure. Your thoughts?

Causes.com is running a petition demanding a proper investigation into the shooting incident.

My Response

Utterly ridiculous. I wonder what the NRA is saying