26 Bullets = one dead dog

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jhorak

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Thought you might enjoy this read.


Cops 'justified' to shoot pit bull 26 times

BY MADISON J. GRAY and ROBERT F. MOORE
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Cops involved in the killing of a pit bull in a Bronx apartment building will reenact the shooting for investigators trying to figure out why it took 26 bullets to subdue the attacking dog, a police source said.

Police chiefs said NYPD procedures were followed in the shooting in a hallway early yesterday that left one cop bitten and three other officers with graze wounds from what officials called friendly fire.

"The shooting was justified, period," said Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne. "As with any shooting, the tactics employed, including the number of shots fired, will be examined by the firearms review board."

The four patrolmen and a sergeant will reconstruct the wild shooting at Rodman's Neck, the NYPD's firing range. A date hasn't been set.

Police were called late Saturday to 480 Concord Ave., Port Morris, on a report of a tenant-landlord dispute that involved a teen smoking pot at the building.

The suspect, Lenin Acevedo, who turned himself in hours later and was charged with marijuana possession, ran from his sixth-floor apartment to another flat on the fourth floor.

Acevedo kicked in the door and a pit bull named Cookie came sprinting into the hallway, witnesses said.

The dog locked its jaws around one officer's leg just after midnight, drawing at least two of the cops to fire from their 9-mm. service weapons. The graze wounds, a police source said, were suffered from ricochet gunfire.

"He was a good dog," said a 12-year-old boy whose family owned the pit bull. "He never bit anybody in his life."

The boy, whose relatives asked that his name be withheld, said he was in his bedroom playing with a PlayStation when the suspect ran into his apartment.

"They killed my dog and didn't say they were sorry," the boy said, adding that authorities seized a puppy from the apartment.

A witness said the dog was shot at least 10 times.

Authorities wouldn't identify the cops involved, but a source said the three wounded patrol officers were rookies.

One officer was hit in the leg and abdomen by bullet fragments. A second cop was grazed in the right leg, and another was bitten in the left leg.

A sergeant was clipped in the ankle.

The cops were taken to Lincoln Hospital, and all were in stable condition yesterday.

Meanwhile, the brain tissue of the dead dog was being tested for rabies.

"This is disgusting," said the 12-year-old boy's aunt, who wouldn't give her name. "What can you say about a situation like this?"

With Melissa Grace and Bob Kappstatter
 
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