LondonScotland Yard has issued a defense of its armed officers who shot two dogs dead and electrocuted the animals’ owner in a tense public incident on Sunday.
graphic video footage of the incident shared on social media shows several metropolitan police officers following a man along a canal through a residential area in Limehouse, east London. Officers can be seen pointing guns at the man and his two of his dogs as residents look on from balconies above the scene of the confrontation.
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As officers speak to the man, the owner appears to be trying to stop the dogs from barking at police. The footage also appears to show officers requesting that the man turn over his animals to the police, which he refuses. As one of the dogs moves toward an officer, another officer fires a single shot, apparently killing the animal.
Bystanders can be heard yelling as the owner attempts to move toward the officers. One of the policemen applies it, and the man then tries to run away. Other officers tackle him to the ground, and when the man’s second dog tries to run after him, he is shot dead by police.
“It didn’t seem proportioned. It’s unbelievable,” a woman who filmed the incident, identifying herself only as “MB,” told the British channel. online mirror news site “It was so shocking. I don’t [realize] it was a suitable weapon until the dogs were completely lying on the ground. Blood was coming out of them.”
The 25-year-old woman also said her neighbors yelled “this is disgusting” and “we’re not in America” during the incident. She also said the man appeared to be traumatized and told police “you could kill me” after the dogs were killed.
in a statement On Sunday night, Scotland Yard said it was aware of video that was shared online “showing part of an incident” in which “two dogs were destroyed by police officers responding to a report of a woman being attacked.” by a dog on Sunday night.
“The agents went to the place where the aggressive attack took place. [behavior] of two dogs was of great concern and posed a significant threat to them,” the statement read. He added that the man was arrested “for keeping a dog dangerously out of control” along with assault charges.
“No person was taken to hospital,” added the Metropolitan Police. “Both dogs were destroyed by police at the scene. This is never an easy decision for any officer to make, but police have a duty to act where necessary before further injury is caused.”
The police force said its Professional Standards Directorate will also “review the circumstances of the incident.”
In March, the BBC reported that cases of runaway dogs causing injury in England and Wales had increased by more than a third in the last five years. The increase came amid a 15 per cent increase in Britain’s dog population over the same period. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reportedly Recorded its highest rate of fatal dog attacks in 2021, with 81 deaths in a single year.
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