(NEW YORK) — Police are investigating after a dog was shot and killed by an off-duty Secret Service agent in New York City, authorities said Tuesday.
The shooting happened shortly after 9:30 p.m. Monday in the Windsor Terrace neighborhood of Brooklyn.
A New York Police Department spokesman said the agent, whose name was not released, turned a corner and was charged by the dog. He said the agent fired one shot, killing the dog.
The Secret Service said in a statement that “an off duty Secret Service employee was involved in the shooting of an unrestrained and aggressive canine” in Brooklyn.
A photo in the Daily News shows the dog’s paws and leash poking out from under a sheet on the sidewalk.
A Secret Service spokesman said the dog was wearing a leash but no one was holding it when the animal charged the agent.
The Daily News reported that the dog was a female Belgian shepherd. The newspaper said one of the dog’s owners, whom it did not name, said, “She scared a cop who was walking home. He shot her and she’s dead.”
Witness Adelaide Gaughran-Bedell told the New York Post that the dog was “splayed out on the ground” after the shooting.
“And then I think the owner — man and a woman, it was a couple — they wanted to touch her and the police wouldn’t let her. I remember him going to the dog and the sheet,” Gaughran-Bedell said.
Walter Blankinship, the stable master at the Kensington Stables, which is across the street from the shooting scene, told the Daily News he heard the dog owner curse at the shooter, ”I can’t ——ing believe you let the gun go off.”
