La Mesa
A police officer and a mixed-breed dog were injured by pit bull dogs in separate incidents Tuesday in La Mesa, police said.
A pit bull attacked Officer Ken Harris as he scuffled with a man involved in a domestic dispute. Harris was struggling with Jones Taliaferro, 36, in Taliaferro’s parents’ home on the 8800 block of Jefferson Avenue, when a pit bull owned by the parents attacked him, said Kristie Powell, a dispatcher for the La Mesa Police Department.
Taliaferro’s parents had summoned police after their son refused to leave the home despite a restraining order prohibiting him from entering their home.
Harris suffered three superficial puncture wounds to his ankle. He was treated at Grossmont Hospital and released.
Taliaferro was booked for assault with a deadly weapon, assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest and violating a restraining order. The dog, which had been properly vaccinated and licensed, was left in the possession of its owners.
In another incident, police responded to reports that a pit bull was attacking a child in the 5300 block of Baltimore Drive in La Mesa, but the victim was actually a mixed-breed dog, Powell said.
The owner of the pit bull and an animal control officer managed to free the mutt from the pit bull, which is being quarantined at the El Cajon Animal Shelter.
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