Woman says her dog was only protecting home when fatally shot by officer

A German Shepherd that was shot and killed by a city police officer was only protecting her home when she bit the officer, the dog’s owner said Thursday.

Louise Day insists that 2-year-old Storm was not a threat.

“They shot her inside her house. The dog was only doing her job,” Day told Metro, adding that Storm was the last surviving German Shepherd of three she had owned. “She was only a pup. If she did anything, she nipped him.”

A police officer went to Day’s home on the 6500 block of Buist Avenue at around 6 p.m. Wednesday, as an escort to a child welfare representative from the Department of Human Services, according to a police report.

Day, 60, wasn’t home at the time, she said, but a friend and her children were staying at the house, and the DHS representative was there to pick the kids up.

Storm was locked in the basement at the time, police said, but managed to get out, and charged the police officer and bit him in the leg, authorities said.

“The officer was speaking with the DHS worker when the dog broke through the basement door and came running through the living room towards the officer, biting the officeronhis left leg,” the police report stated. “The officer discharged his weapon killing the dog.”

But Day questioned whether the police officer acted appropriately.

“She didn’t deserve to be shot. They could have maced her or zapped her. They fired two shots from close range with kids right there in the house,” Day said. “She was defending the house; it was her territory. I live here alone. She’s my protection. It was a strange man coming in.”

Day acknowledged Storm had bitten a child before, but said it wasn’t a serious bite.

“She nipped the kid next door, I’m not gonna lie about it,” Day said. “There were no stitches. She had all her shots.”

Now Day is trying to get Storm’s body back so it can be cremated, but said she is being treated “like a criminal.”

“I’m afraid they’re just gonna take her and throw her in the incinerator because they know I want her body,” she said.

The officer was reportedly in stable condition after being treated at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, and the shooting is being reviewed by the police department, as is current policy for all police-involved shootings.