SAN ANTONIO — An off-duty police officer shot two of his neighbor's dogs after he said they broke through his fence and attacked his police K9 and another dog in his backyard.
SAPD was dispatched around 12:30 p.m. on Saturday to the 9300 block of Lands Point on the northwest side of town for a report of a shooting in progress.
When officers arrived, they discovered it was the home of an SAPD officer who is a K9 handler. He was off-duty when he said his 46-year-old neighbor's dogs had broken through the wooden fence to his backyard and attacked his assigned police K9, as well as a second dog.
Two of the neighbor's dogs had come through the fence. The officer tried to separate the dogs but was unsuccessful. He then fired multiple rounds at the dogs attacking his K9, to try and stop the attack.
Two of the attacking dogs were hit by gunfire, and one died from its injuries. The officer's own K9 was also struck by gunfire. He rushed the K9 to a nearby veterinary clinic but it sadly died from its injuries. A second elderly dog was also injured in the attack.
City of San Antonio Animal Care Services was notified and came to the location. The neighbor was cited by ACS for numerous violations.
We reached out to City of San Antonio ACS and they released this statement:
"Animal Care Services is aware of this weekend’s incident involving a SAPD K9 officer and three other dogs," said Lisa Norwood, Public Relations Manager. "We can confirm the police K9 and one of the owned animals are deceased while a second dog was injured by gunfire during the dog fight. ACS investigators have issued a total of six citations thus far to the owner of the three dogs; including two separate counts each for: a dog roaming off property, a dog damaging private property and failure to prevent an owned dog biting another animal. Additional citations or charges may be forthcoming as the investigation continues."
The SAPD Shooting Team and Internal Affairs Unit will conduct separate but concurrent investigations into this incident. The officer, who has 16 years of service, will be placed on Administrative Duty.