An off-duty Secret Service agent fatally shot a dog that he says charged at him while walking through a Brooklyn neighborhood Monday night.
According to reports by the New York Daily News and the New York Times, police sources and witnesses said that the agent, whose name has not been released, was walking in the Windsor Terrace neighborhood around 9:45 p.m. Monday night when he encountered a man and his girlfriend walking with a female Belgian Shepherd.
Police sources told the Daily News that the dog started barking and the agents pulled out his gun and shot her.
“She scared a cop who was walking home,” the dog’s owner told the Daily News. “He shot her and she’s dead.”
Sgt. Mary Frances O’Donnell, a police spokeswoman, told the Times that “the dog charged him” and “he let one round go” before “he killed the dog.” O’Donnell added that the off-duty Secret Service agent reported the shooting to the police and remained at the scene, according to the Times.
A Secret Service spokesperson told TPM in a statement that the “canine was wearing a leash but unsecured from its owner who was not present.”
“An off duty Secret Service employee was involved in the shooting of an unrestrained and aggressive canine in Brooklyn, NY yesterday,” the statement obtained by TPM said. “As this is an ongoing investigation, the Secret Service will not have further comment.”
Walter Blankinship, the manager of nearby Kensington Stables, told the Daily News and the New York Times that he was outside the stables when he heard the shot.
“I heard the gunshot, and then I heard a guy arguing, cursing and carrying on,” Blankinship told the Times. “I just thought it was local people having an argument.”
Blankinship described the dog as a small or medium-sized brown dog and that he did not know its owners personally, according to the Times.
Blankinship also told the Daily News that “a gunshot went off, just one” and that “the (dog’s owner) was cursing and ranting at the other man, ‘I can’t f—ing believe you let the gun go off.’”
Adelaide Gaughran-Bedell, whose family lives in the area, told the Times that she was “a bit confused” when she saw the dog lying lifeless on the sidewalk and later saw it covered with a white cloth.
“I was a bit confused, because there were tons of policemen on our block but no one was getting arrested or questioned,” Gaughran-Bedell told the Times. “Instead, they all seemed to be looking to de-escalate the situation and pacify the owner.”
