This whole deal is bad. I would hate to encounter this situation.
My whole family was on a walk one evening when a dog that was not leashed came charging down from a house. My wife instantly grabbed my son out of the car seat. Meeka was already in her drive. I had no choice but the really kick the dog. It was not a full out punt, but I made it count. The owner was outside and he wasn't very happy. But I think it is our job to protect our dogs, in this case, family also.
My city has a law on all dogs must be on a leash. The parks for the most part are good with this. But a simple walk around the neighborhood, I see dogs off leashes all the time. Most of them small dogs, but it was a mix, big dog that charged us.

When Doug was a police officer it was optional to carry a weapon, some departments made it mandatory. He elected to always carry and still does today. I'm extremely comfortable that he does so.

Back in the 80's he was off duty and coming home from work. He passed a barber shop where a man was dragging out a woman who of course was screaming. Doug immediately turned around and the guy then drug her back into the shop.

The man gave up when Doug got inside. His first thought was that perhaps it was a domestic situation, but turned out not to be the case... The creep has thumb cuffs on the woman and a knife and duct tape in his car. He also had a gun on the woman when Doug first saw him, but had hidden it the shop when he drug her back in.

That woman didn't seem to have any heartburn over the fact that the officer was carrying even while off duty.

I have to say Ross, that the vast, vast majority of LEOs go out of their way to never fire their weapons except on the range. The three officers we know who did fire their weapons in the line of duty, two of whom were shot themselves in the process, did not take it lightly at all.

 Quote: ross rapoport

If the officer is truly a "sheepdog" in the context of that essay, then risking some physical harm to himself should be preferable to risking some more serious harm to the people nearby in the form of a stray bullet (as you've said, some were children).

Ross,
Now you're simply entering into the land of BS - the officer *DIDN'T* injure anyone/anything that wasn't presenting a danger. You can go on and on with the "what if", but to suggest that someone should risk injury to themselves if they have the skill and ability to prevent that ( and notice, once again, that *no one* was injured *except* the attacking dog, hence I'll give the officer credit for a clean shot that took out the intended target ) is just stupid in my eyes.

I'm also going to point out, this is what LEOs face everyday after an incident - an uniformed public, that will *never* be in the same situation, will armchair quarterback them all day, with idiotic remarks like "why didn't you shoot the gun out of his hand instead of shooting him"?.

This was a good discussion 'til it became a "cop" thing.

When did that happen?

Nice debate when it was just a "guy" that pulled the trigger. Somewhere this turned into bash or protect LEO and military.

RIP, thread.

Michael, I didn't mean to kill a thread by standing up for LEOs, really. If I did, I sincerely apologize.

No!

I wasn't pointing the finger at anyone in particular.

I think it kinda gravitated there all by itself. With the nature of the story, and the occupation of the shooter, it isn't a surprise that it drifted that way.

And I wouldn't expect someone to sit by when something or someone they feel strongly about is being bashed either.

I just thought it was a good discussion when it was about "rules of engagement" in a dog fight. It isn't really about that now.

Got it. It was / is an interesting topic... still a very sad situation.

 Quote: michael_wise

Nice debate when it was just a "guy" that pulled the trigger. Somewhere this turned into bash or protect LEO and military.

As far as I know it is still just a guy pulling the trigger. Off duty, personal weapon, etc. I don't care what he does for a living for sake of this story. It has no bearing beyond that this guy is on paid administrative leave from the DOD as a result. I will be curious if the town mob actually gets anything beyond investigation on the matter.

I still say,
Walking into a dog park is an assumed risk.
And to be shooting anything for having to face your own stupidity shows very poor judgement all the way around.

In the end there was no need for any of it to have happened.

Randy, bottom line, this is how I feel as well. IN A DOG PARK. So many other options were open to these folks.