On Monday, NYPD officers in the East Village shot a dog protecting its owner. Although immediate reports claimed the dog (a pit bull named Star) had died from the gunshot wounds, it was later revealed she was in fact alive but in serious condition.
Since then, a video obtained by Gothamist has surfaced capturing the horrific event. You can hear bystanders screaming to officers, "No! Why did you do that?"
According to police accounts, the dog had lunged at officers attempting to approach her owner who was visibly passed out and appeared to be suffering from a seizure.
Chef Eddie Huang, who owns Baohaus on the corner of 2nd Avenue and 14th Street where the shooting occurred, witnessed the shooting and told The Observer:
We heard the gunshot, and we all ducked, and saw people running and screaming. All of the sudden, our chef Mitch ran towards the gunshot. He was like Yo, it’s that dog in front of KFC—because there’s always this dog in front of KFC—and by the time I get there, I can see the dog whipping around and convulsing.
You can see in the photo, the trail of blood. The dog traveled. People were really really vocal, harassing the cops to put the dog down, and they wouldn’t do it. The whole thing just seemed really, really unnecessary. I don’t know what the protocol is for this, I know they have to keep the peace, but it really seemed like an abuse of power, an unnecessary one, and not doing it the right way. They really should’ve put that dog out of its misery. We’ve all seen Old Yeller. We all know the right way to do this.
Officials from the Animal Care and Control Center are still trying to reunite Star with the dog's owner, a man the Local East Village has identified as Lech Stankiewicz.
The photo from Monday's shooting, via @MrEddieHuang:
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