Pellets fired at dog by officers strike wall of family home

4/5/2011

Tina Galloway and her four children were at their central-Toledo residence Saturday night when she heard several gunshots and found holes in her bedroom wall from what she later learned were shotgun pellets fired by police in a fatal shooting of a dog.

"Me and my children are still crying, still shaking," Ms. Galloway said, her voice shaking. "It could be me and the kids who got killed. They are still scared. I am still scared. I can't sleep, and my kids can't sleep."

The experience left the family so shaken up that they were afraid to stay in the shot-up public housing unit and instead spent the night at a relative's place, Ms. Galloway said. She and her children, ages 5, 7, 8, and 9, have since returned but she said they are planning to move out in the near future.

Monday, police released a report that refers to the incident as an "animal problem."

Officer Byron Daniels and Officer Andre Bills were patrolling the McClinton Nunn Homes in the 300 block of Dennis Court near Nebraska Avenue and Weiler Avenue in the central city about 9:50 p.m. They were looking for people involved in an earlier gunfire incident when they saw a female "pit bull"-type dog "acting very aggressive," the officers wrote in their report.

The dog charged the officers and forced them into a nearby residence. They then contacted the Lucas County Dog Warden's Office, requesting help.

Once a deputy dog warden arrived, the dog attacked Officer Daniels, who was standing outside. The police report said many public housing residents were behind him, at which time the dog "was shot and killed," according to the report.

Pellets from the shotgun used in the shooting ricocheted into two adjacent residences in the 500 block of Hyatt Lane, "causing damage to the exterior and interior of both residences and also damaging a light in the upstairs east bedroom" in one of them, officers stated in their report. The Hyatt address where the bedroom light was shot is the same as the one Ms. Galloway gave The Blade as her home address.

Besides Ms. Galloway and her children, those at the residence at the time of the shooting included Ms. Galloway's 14-year-old sister, a family friend, and the friend's 19-year-old daughter. They all were in different parts of the unit, none of them in the bedroom, Ms. Galloway said.

The dog warden's office said in its emergency call report that "upon arrival, the dog charged someone and was shot by police." Following a police investigation, the dog's body was seized by the dog warden's office, according to the report.

On Wednesday, police shot a female "pit bull"-type dog, which was later euthanized, after it bit a 6-year-old boy in the unit block of Bronson Avenue in North Toledo. The boy spent a night at a hospital and was released to his relatives the next day.

Contact Mike Sigov at: sigov@theblade.com, or 419-724-6089.