Pit bull shot, killed by KPD officer

A pit bull was shot and killed on Kalispell's west side Wednesday afternoon after investigators say it aggressively approached a police officer trying to contain it.

The dog is the fourth pit bull officers have been forced to shoot in the last 13 months, according to Kalispell Police Department Patrol Lt. Wade Rademacher.

Officers responded to the alley behind Fifth Avenue West at Fourth Street about 12:30 p.m. Wednesday after receiving an anonymous call that two pit bull mixes were running loose in the area.

Despite two attempts to coax one of the dogs into the back of a patrol car, the pit bull - which had taken an aggressive stance toward officers - ran down Fifth Avenue West. Officers attempted to shoo the dog into its own fenced yard in the 300 block of Fifth Avenue West, but the dog went onto a neighbor's property, Rademacher said.

A woman and her young child in the yard at the time were ordered back into their home before the pit bull lowered its ears and aggressively advanced toward an officer, Rademacher said. The officer fired three times from a distance of 15 to 20 feet, killing the dog.

"Our officers took all reasonable efforts to contain the dog… and when it got to the point where it had already shown aggression and was near other residents… it became a situation where we couldn't take the chance that the dog was not going to be a threat to us," Rademacher said.

Rademacher, who has stressed that Tasers are not an effective or safe tool to neutralize an aggressive dog, noted that only a minority of requests for police to contain loose dogs end with the animal getting shot.

"We've had several calls this summer of pit bulls at large… and in those cases officers were able to contain these animals without incident," said Rademacher, adding that the officers 'responded appropriately and out of necessity."

The dog's owner had been contacted to come and contain his animal, but the pit bull became aggressive before he could arrive, Rademacher said.

Officers will determine whether or not to cite the dog's owner - who was able to locate and contain his second pit bull - after the investigation had been completed, Rademacher said.

Reporter Nicholas Ledden can be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at nledden@dailyinterlake.com