ROSEVILLE, Mich. – Police said a man shot and killed a pit bull that he said was attacking him while he took his dog for a walk in Roseville.
The man was walking his dog down Lehner Street when two dogs escaped from a backyard and attacked, police said. He pulled out a gun and shot the attacking pit bull dead right in a Roseville front yard.
The owner of the pit bull said the dog probably just wanted to play, and the man didn't have to shoot him.
Roseville police said the 52-year-old man was walking his large mastiff when the pit bull and another dog charged out of a backyard and attacked the mastiff.
Witnesses told police the dog's owner tried to fight off the pit bull, but then pulled out his legally licensed handgun and shot the pit bull twice.
"Not putting blame on nobody, but he didn't have to die like that," neighbor Sharon Burlison said. "Blood everywhere. Didn't have to go out like that."
The owner of the pit bull didn't want to go on camera, but said his dog, Zeus, was gentle.
"My dog wasn't vicious," he said. "(He was) 9 years old. That dog was 10 times the size of my dog."
His next-door neighbor also never had a problem with Zeus.
"Never," the neighbor said. "Never. I would have complained."
"That was my baby," the pit bull's owner said. "Now I have one. My dog is sitting there crying. Now I have one. What do I do?"
Police are still investigating the incident. The case will be forwarded to the Macomb County Prosecutor's Office.