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2 escaped pit bulls killed after attacks on PTC jogger, copTue, 10/07/2008 - 3:50pm
By: The Citizen
UPDATED Tuesday, Oct. 7 The jogger suffered puncture wounds to his leg after attempting to protect his leashed golden retriever, which also received puncture wounds to the animal’s neck and side. Peachtree City Police subsequently shot one of the attacking dogs near the golf course green on the west side of Peachtree Parkway, while the other pit bull died minutes later after being deliberately struck by a patrol car on Ga. Highway 54, east of North Peachtree Parkway. The incident began when police were notified at 7:50 a.m. that a Greensway resident was jogging next to the golf course with his leashed retriever when he noticed a dark brown pit bull and a white and light brown pit bull in the area, police reports said. The man said he attempted to change directions but he and his dog were subsequently attacked by the two dogs. The jogger was able to free his dog after struggling for several minutes, but subsequently became the victim when the bulldogs turned on him. The jogger was bitten three times, with the most severe bite just below his left calf, according to police reports. Officers began a search for the loose pit bulls, locating them minutes later in the area of Flat Creek Golf Club and Highlands subdivision, reports said. One of the officers maintained surveillance of the dogs near the golf course while other officers were set up along the perimeter to keep them away from citizens, officers said. Officers temporarily lost sight of the dogs but located them on the north side of Gleneagle Point, between the Wyndham Peachtree Conference Center and North Peachtree Parkway and approximately 700 feet north of Hwy. 54. The dogs emerged from the treeline onto the golf course where an officer and and a golf course maintenance worker were positioned approximately 30 yards away, reports said. One of the pit bulls began growling and both began running aggressively toward the two men, the officer said. Believing the dogs were about to attack, the officer fired one round at each dog, followed by two more shots as the dogs turned and ran in the opposite direction, with one of the dogs running in the direction of Lt. Mark Brown. Brown fired six rounds from a .223-caliber semiautomatic rifle and killed the white/light brown pit bull. Police reports noted that all shots were fired in the direction of Hwy. 54. A five-foot grade separates the area from the roadway, reports said. The first shots were fired at 8:14 a.m., according to department spokesperson Capt. Rosanna Dove. Officers reported that, after the shots were fired, the remaining pit bull ran past the Wyndham and onto Hwy. 54, running east in the eastbound lanes. Officers attempted to get the dog out of the road, though several attempts were unsuccessful. At one point, near Peachtree Parkway, the pit bull ran onto the median and into the westbound lanes, though still running east. The dog ran onto the property of Christ our Shepherd Lutheran Church, across Peachtree Parkway and into Peachtree Crossings shopping center. The remaining dog ran back onto Hwy. 54 near near McDonald’s and Eastbrook Bend. It was then that Lt. Brown approved the attempt to disable the dog by hitting it with a patrol car, reports said. One of the officers did strike the animal with the left side of his front bumper. The dog rolled under the left front tire and exited from under the rear of the vehicle, rolling once or twice, reports said. Officers said the dog got up and went onto the median and laid down. The incident ended at 8:34 a.m. Animal control officers arrived a couple of minutes later, but the dog had died, reports said. “It is regrettable to have to put down two animals,” Peachtree City Police Chief Skip Clark said Monday. “However, given the circumstances and the aggressive nature of the two pit bulls, the officers acted appropriately to protect other citizens from being attacked.” One of the officers at the golf course remembered an incident involving pit bulls at the Grenoble Road residence of Robert Reid, according to reports. Grenoble Road is situated between Stevens Entry and Hwy. 54, approximately 2,000 feet across Hwy. 54 from the home of the Greensway resident that was attacked. Officers went to the residence and met with Reid, who said he had arrived home at approximately 3 a.m. Sunday morning and found his dogs missing, believing that they had been stolen. he officer told Reid what had happened and showed him head and face photographs of the two dogs. Reid identified the dogs as belonging to him. Reid said the dogs were current with their vaccinations though he could not readily present those records. Officers checked the back yard of the home, noting a privacy fence and a gate. Officers found the bottoms of fence boards broken off in two locations and a gap in the gate that could have been pushed sufficiently to allow the dogs to escape, reports said. The officer noted that, though Reid said someone must have taken the dogs, he made no attempt to report the theft. Reid was cited with two counts of animal running at large, reports said. An investigative summary of the incident noted six past cases of abuse and neglect with which Reid had been involved and three complaint calls on the dogs. And earlier this year, Fayette Sheriff’s Drug Task Force served a search warrant at the residence and filed drug charges on Reid, reports said. In an issue related to the incident, Highlands subdivision resident Carolyn Browning said Monday she had gone outside to pick up her paper Sunday morning during the general time frame that officers were locating and subduing the pit bulls. Browning said while at the curb two dogs that appeared to be pit bulls trotted by her house and kept going. A few minutes later the dogs passed her house again without incident, Browning said. She said that during this time a police officer was parked in his vehicle across the street. "He should have rolled his window down and told us to go back in the house," Browning said, being concerned about her physical health and that of her own dog. ***************** Rifle fire reverberated Sunday morning across the greens at Flat Creek Golf Course in Peachtree City as police officers shot and killed a pit bulldog after the animal had attacked a jogger with a dog on a nearby cart path. Another pit bull was killed by a police car after the attack on the jogger, police reports said. That occurred near the intersection of Ga. Highway 54 and Peachtree Parkway, close to McDonald’s restaurant and two nearby churches. Both the jogger and the accompanying dog were bitten, police said. The incident happened near the geographic center of Peachtree City about 8:30 Sunday morning. The owner of the pit bulls was charged with letting his dogs run loose inside the city, police said. More details coming. login to post comments
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