A Wichita, Kansas officer is on paid administrative leave following a shooting incident Saturday night that left a 9-year-old girl with an injury from a bullet fragment.
Officers responded to a northeast Wichita home at the 1500 block of North Gentry around 6:15 Saturday for a report of a domestic dispute and a suicidal person with a gun.
When officers got inside, they received information that there was a man inside with a gun held to his mouth and he had choked a dog. There were four children and a woman also in the home at the time, according to police.
The family told police the handgun was in a bedroom under the pillow on the bed. When officers went to retrieve the gun the 9-year-old was injured in the following incident.
"When officers were receiving the gun, a mid-sized mixed-breed dog charged at one of the officers," Wichita police said. "The officer pulled his service weapon and shot at the dog, missing it."
"The round struck the hard surface floor of the residence and broke into fragments. A piece of a fragment ricocheted, striking a 9-year-old girl in the forehead, just above her right eye. She was treated at a local hospital and released Saturday evening."
The mother of the girl who was injured by the bullet fragment is Danielle Maples and she was "mortified" by the whole ordeal. "I'm mortified because there were so many things that could have been done differently, but were not," Maples explained.
Maples also said she and her husband were both outsides when officers entered their home and she added she was never asked if they could go inside. "My whole intention of calling was to keep everyone safe and that didn't happen," Maples continued.
The families lawyer says the department's policy needs to be reviewed. "I think we all need to look at what judgment is being done by our police officers here and where they're getting that they can act like this," he said.
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Shooting a persons dog is a great way to escalate the event as most dog owners will protect their dogs like their children. Its a more violent form of escalation than just groping your woman in front of you under the guise of "checking for weapons". The cop just wants to see if he can get an additional charge of disorderly conduct or assault on an officer. The cops come in all amped up and if nothing happens its a huge letdown for them.
Why are cops so obsessed with killing dogs? They're worse than PETA.