SAN ANTONIO ā A San Antonio police officer is on administrative duty after allegedly shooting three dogs and killing two of them, including his department-assigned K-9.
According to a police report, the officerās neighborās dogs broke through his backyard fence and attacked the K-9.
The neighbor, Amanda Harris, spoke with KSAT about the incident.
āI just wish it wouldāve turned out differently, especially because weāre neighbors,ā Harris said.
The officer, whose identity has not been released, has 16 years of service and is a K-9 handler. During the alleged attack, the officer said he attempted to separate the dogs but was unsuccessful.
Following the attempt to separate the dogs, police said the off-duty officer fired multiple rounds at the dogs attacking his K-9 to stop the attack. All three dogs were hit by the gunfire.
One of the neighborās dogs, Dutch, died on the scene. The K-9 and the neighborās other dog, Pearl, were both taken to a veterinary clinic. SAPD said the department-assigned K-9 later died.
āSheās still bleeding,ā Harris said. āThey donāt know if sheās going to make it. They said itās touch and go. She had two bullet wounds on her.ā
Harris said she didnāt hear anything during the incident until a woman screamed.
āThere was no dogs whining, no barking, no nothing,ā Harris said. āWe immediately went over there as soon as we heard the lady scream.ā
āMy husband ran over there and started calling our dogs, like ācome back, come back,ā and then the shots rang out,ā Harris said. āItās an unfortunate situation that didnāt have to happen.ā
Now, two dogs are dead, the officer is on administrative duty, and Harris is just hoping her dog, Pearl, recovers.
Harrisās husband was cited for two misdemeanors by animal control for Dutch. One of the violations was ādestruction of propertyā and the other was for Dutch being āfree of restraint,ā officials said.
āHe was let out in his own backyard,ā Harris said. You donāt put your dogs on leashes in their backyard.ā
The SAPD Shooting Team and Internal Affairs units are conducting separate investigations into the incident.
KSAT was informed that there may be a video of the incident, but itās unconfirmed where the video originated. KSAT has requested a video from SAPD.