Off-Duty Officer Kills Pit Bull Involved in Dog Fight

An off-duty Los Angeles police officer shot and killed a pit bull early Monday after the dog attacked a Labrador retriever and then lunged toward the officer, said Orange County Sheriff’s Department investigators.

“The dog was going to attack the officer,” Sheriff’s Lt. Ron Wilkerson said. “That’s when he opened fire.”

The unidentified police officer was driving home from work about 7 a.m. when he stopped to assist a woman whose dog was being attacked by the pit bull at Camden and Iris Avenue, Wilkerson said.

“The pit bull had the Labrador by the neck,” Wilkerson said. “The owner was concerned that her dog was going to be killed by the pit bull. . . . The officer and [other witnesses] tried and were successful in getting the dogs separated. But then the pit bull turned on him.”

The pit bull died from one bullet wound to his left shoulder, said John Gonzales, supervisor of Mission Viejo’s animal control unit, which performed an autopsy.

The beige, 35-pound pit bull wasn’t wearing an identification tag but had a plastic collar attached to a 4-foot rope. “He could have been tied in somebody’s backyard and had broken loose,” Gonzales said. “It’s possible the owner has no idea that the dog is gone.”

The condition of the Labrador retriever was not available Monday, but deputies said they didn’t believe the injuries were life-threatening. The officer, the woman and her other dog, a chow, were not injured, deputies said.

Wilkerson declined to identify the officer or the woman, and said the shooting will be investigated by his department as well as the Los Angeles Police Department.