Cop shoots, kills dog that attacked man

A police officer shot and killed a dog after it attacked a man near downtown Kalispell Wednesday.

According to a release from the Kalispell Police Department, three officers responded to the 600 block of First Avenue West at 6:10 p.m. after it was reported that two dogs had just attacked a man. They located the animals in the parking lot and playground of St. Matthew’s Catholic Parish, where they corralled the dogs to one end and waited for an animal control officer to arrive with a catch pole.

While they were waiting, the release states, one of the dogs charged an officer while growling with its teeth bared. The officer then shot the approximately 100-pound mastiff/Labrador cross out of fear for his own safety.

The dog, named “Boog” according to owner Drew Alford, died on the scene from its gunshot wounds.

Alford said he and his girlfriend had put the dogs in his backyard before going to the grocery store at about 5:30 p.m. When they got back, the dogs were gone, and they had several messages and calls about their being loose. One of the calls pointed them toward St. Matthew’s.

“We even walked through the parking lot playground,” Alford said. “We saw a policeman and tried to wave him down, but he waved us away.”

They then kept walking through the neighborhood and eventually returned to St. Matthew’s, where a fire truck was pulling in. Again, they tried to flag down a police officer, but he drove off. Eventually they walked up to a firefighter.

“Then I looked over, and 20 feet away from me was a pool of blood and what was left of my dog,” Alford said.

The fire department was on scene to wash away the blood, he said.

He heard about what had happened from the man Boog attacked, who gave him a different story than that of the press release.

“He said the only thing he knows is they had Boog sitting down, cornered in the playground. He wasn’t doing anything, just walking back and forth, when officers came over to talk to him,” Alford said.

“They turned around and started to walk away when he saw another officer walk across the street. He turned around to put pen to paper and heard two shots.”

The man had been angry and upset after being attacked by the dog, but Alford said the man told him his attitude changed after he heard the gunshots.

“He had to leave, he was sick to his stomach,” Alford said. “He said numerous times there was no call for that.”

According to Alford, one of the shots went through Boog’s right side and exited somewhere through the rib cage, while the other went into the right side of the dog’s face, “pretty much destroying his head.”

When he went to retrieve his dead dog, Alford said he found it dumped in an alley behind the solid waste department, wrapped in dirty plastic.

“I’ve had Boog for six years, ever since he was a puppy,” Alford said. “I got him in the Kalispell Center Mall parking lot.”

He said he had been going through a rough time when he got the puppy, having recently lost a friend.

“We’ve been thick as thieves ever since,” Alford said.

Although he tried numerous times to call the Kalispell Police Department, Alford said no one has contacted him yet about the incident or any potential charges for the attack. The only person he has spoken with is an animal warden.

“[The warden] himself said he was a little disturbed about what went down on the playground,” Alford said.

He said the killing of dogs by law enforcement happens too often.

“Cops should not be able to handle animals anymore,” he said.

Despite how the situation turned out, Alford still took responsibility for the initial attack by his dog.

“I understand my animal bit somebody, and I can’t express how horrible I feel,” he said.

The other dog did not act aggressively and was later taken to the Flathead County Animal Shelter.

The release also indicated that a group of four boys approached the officers while they were still on the scene and said the same dogs had attacked them earlier on Second Avenue East. None had serious injuries, but they had several bites that did not break the skin.

Later that evening, the mother of one of the boys contacted the police department about the attack.

Kalispell Police Chief Roger Nasset did not immediately respond to calls left with the department.

An investigation into the incident is ongoing.