Published: August 27, 2008 11:40 pm      

Officer shot 2 pit bulls in park

Dogs attacked several people and a Chihuahua

John Beechy and his daughter, Alex, were riding their bicycles through Highland Park Tuesday evening when they came across two pit bulls acting aggressively.

“We were riding our bikes near the playground when we saw a large dog with people around it. We kept riding and suddenly two pit bulls started attacking my daughter,” John Beechy said Wednesday.

“I tried to help her. I looked at her foot. It broke her skin and is bruised pretty good.”

“I’ve never seen dogs like that,” he said. “They were going after anybody they could.”

In addition to Beechy’s daughter, the dogs attacked another dog and a small boy before being shot by Kokomo Police Officer Ty Solomon.

None of the injuries were serious, but Beechy said it could have been a lot worse.

“They were getting ready to attack another kid when the officer shot them,” Beechy said.

The two pit bulls were not on leashes, and no one in the area knew who the owned the dogs, he added.

The dogs, one brindle and one black, also attacked a woman’s Chihuahua and an 11-year-old boy, according to Kokomo Police Lt. Jerry Williams.

“Solomon said they were very aggressive pit bulls,” Williams said of the ordeal.

The boy suffered a small bite that caused a puncture wound, but no serious injuries.

The Kokomo Humane Society was called to the scene, but the dogs were still trying to bite people and tried to attack the officer. That’s when Solomon used his 12-gauge shotgun to shoot the dogs.

Williams said police do not know who owned the dogs.

“I commend the police officer for shooting them,” Beechy said. “He was protecting the kids out there.”