Charges still pending after dog shooting

Police have yet to issue citations against the owner of a pit bull that on Friday attacked a maintenance worker in the parking lot of the Outlaw Inn on Third Avenue East.

The mauling is still under investigation, but the pit bull's owner most likely will face "vicious dog" and "dog at large" charges, said Kalispell Police Patrol Lt. Wade Rademacher.

Authorities are also looking into the possibility of charging the person caring for the dog when the attack on the maintenance worker occurred. The dog was fatally shot after it charged responding officers.

The dog's caretaker, whose name has not been released, works and lives at the hotel, Rademacher said.

Officers were dispatched to the hotel's parking lot about 1:15 p.m. Friday after a pit bull attack was reported. Police found the maintenance worker, 46-year-old William Bintz, bitten and bleeding badly.

"He had severe lacerations to his face and both arms due to the dog bites," said Kalispell Police Senior Detective Sgt. Scott Warnell.

Bintz was taken to Kalispell Regional Medical Center, where he almost immediately underwent emergency surgery.

Responding officers were able to contain the pit bull - shielding Bintz, paramedics, and bystanders with shotguns drawn - but the dog charged and two officers fired simultaneously, fatally wounding it.

Video from a camera mounted on a patrol car's dashboard shows police shoot the rapidly charging pit bull, which slid to a halt about 10 feet from one of the officers.

The pit bull was still breathing when it arrived at the Flathead County Animal Shelter, where it was euthanized, according to shelter director Kirsten Holland.

Investigators said the pit bull was shadowing Bintz from the other side of a short, chain-link fence when another man playing with a remote-control car in the Outlaw Inn's parking lot yelled to warn Bintz he thought the dog might attack.

Instead, the pit bull turned on the man with the remote-control car and chased him into the bed of a pickup truck, where the man fought the dog off with a piece of copper tubing.

Bintz reportedly yelled at the dog, causing it then to turn on him, Rademacher said.

Police believe the pit bull, whose owner has been cited in the past for dog-at-large violations, had escaped out an open window.

The owner indicated the dog had been rescued from an abusive home, police said. The dog's caretaker told investigators the animal had been rescued in California, where it had been used in pit fights.

"This is the third incident in the last year that officers have shot pit bulls that have aggressively advanced toward them," Rademacher said. "In two of those instances, the pit bulls had just attacked other people unprovoked."

Rademacher was clear the police department isn't out to target pit bulls, and that it was circumstance more than anything else that the last three calls where vicious dogs had to be shot involved the breed. Friday was no exception.

"The officers in that situation - there was nothing else they could have done," he said.

Rademacher also rejected criticisms that officers should have used Tasers rather than lethal force.

"Each situation involving dogs is different. Some dogs have the propensity to do a lot more damage than others," he said. "Attempting to use a Taser on a dog that could inflict serious bodily harm on an officer is not advisable."

The vertically oriented prongs on a Taser, both of which must hit the target to be effective, spread apart at a rate of one foot per every seven feet traveled. Any hope of hitting a fast-moving, attacking dog means the officer has to wait to fire until it is within about 15 feet.

"If you miss, a charging dog at 15 feet away is going to cover that ground in a second," Rademacher said. "I am not going to ask my officers to risk serious bodily injury to prevent killing a dog that has already attacked another person… You're playing Russian roulette if you hope a Taser is going to stop a dog."

In addition, dogs that have been shocked by a Taser tend to run away, becoming a threat to someone somewhere else. The jolt from a Taser lasts five seconds, and it would be inhumane to shock a vicious dog continually until animal control officers arrived, Rademacher said.

A city ordinance allows police "to kill, on the spot and while in the act, any dog running at large which then and there appears to be mad or dangerous to the public."

The Flathead Valley Animal Shelter has offered training on canine behavior and human-dog altercations, according to Holland, who encouraged law-enforcement officers to attend.

She also expressed concern about pets kept by long-term residents of the south Kalispell hotel.

"We see a lot of stray dogs from this area - most of whom are loving, wonderful pets with no behavioral issues - and receive many owner turn-ins as well," Holland wrote in a letter to the Inter Lake. "I am a staunch advocate of pet-friendly housing and have begun working with landlords and trailer park managers to promote responsible pet ownership, without which a safe and healthy community is unattainable."

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