When Alliance police officer Joshua Tenney shot and killed a dog last month, he said he had no choice; the dog's owners felt differently.
Tenney shot the 3-year-old pitbull, China, after the dog "aggressively charged" him, according to a report from Alliance police.
At the time of the shooting, Tenney was on the lookout for a group of three escaped dogs wandering the area. According to the report, during this search, the dog's owner Mark Sampson told Tenney that the pets "wouldn't hurt a soul."
China was with one other pitbull and a Rottweiler at the time of the shooting; the latter was unlicensed.
Numerous people in the vicinity of the shooting reported violent or aggressive encounters with the dogs, which Alliance police and the Stark County dog warden are investigating. An unidentified woman told Cleveland 19 News that "[China] charged right at me and got a hold of my leg."
While Tenney said in the report that Sampson was understanding at the time of the shooting, telling Alliance officers that they "did what [they] had to do," China's owner has publicly expressed his disappointment in Tenney's actions.
"I just wish he didn't have to shoot my dog," he told Cleveland 19.
Sampson shared the pitbull and two other dogs with his fiancée, Morgan Furry, and said their escaped pets weren't endangering anyone.
You can see the incident from Tenney's perspective here, but be warned that the footage is graphic.
