Minneapolis police shot and killed a loose dog Thursday morning on the city's North Side after they say it attacked a man and then charged at officers.
Officers were called around 7:30 a.m. on a report of a dog bite in the 3700 block of N. Bryant Avenue, according to officer Garrett Parten, a department spokesman. They found the victim bleeding from a bite wound to the hand and later spotted the dog roaming the streets nearby.
As officers approached the animal, it charged at them aggressively, Parten said, and one of the officers fired at least one round, killing the dog.
The victim drove himself, to a hospital, Parten said. It wasn't immediately clear whether the incident was captured on officers' body cameras.
Parten said that the officers present have since returned to duty. Officers involved in shooting incidents with dogs are not required to go on administrative leave.
The incident is being investigated by Animal Control, he said, adding that police have so far been unable to determine the dog's owner.
He said he didn't know if the officers involved had been through the department's enhanced training for dealing with dogs.
The training was instituted three years ago after an officer shot and seriously wounded two dogs while responding to a suspected burglary on the North Side. A lawsuit arising from the July 2017 episode is still in federal court.
But Parten said the dog in Thursday's incident had been behaving aggressively, creating "a little bit different scenario this time."
Either way, he said, "it's not something we want to do obviously — it's very unfortunate."
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