I have several friends and family on the police force. One of which is a K-9 officer. The dog/officer lives with his handler…he is part of the family. To the human part of the K-9 team, that dog is his partner, just like any other human would be…and if you threaten/harm his partner, he will return fire. That dog is worth several thousand dollars in breeding and training. As far as the police department is concerned, that dog is worth more than any of the criminal element they have to deal with, and yes, they will treat an assult on that dog the same as an assult on any other law enforcement officer.

To someone who hasn’t been exposed to/doesn’t know a K-9 officer, perhaps they might think of it as a glorified guard dog…and no killing a guard dog is not the same as killing a person, but a K-9 officer is soooo not a guard dog, glorified or otherwise.

And to Brian…if that dog in the burning building was a K-9 officer…unless the human was a child or loved one….I’d be saving the dog first, a glorified guard dog - then I’d save the human first. That is assuming I didn’t know the human to be a waste of oxygen…then I might just light my cigarette on the flames and sit back and wait for the fire department to arrive (And here’s to the firemen! Another under-rated group of humans!)

You want answers for your childs death……ask yourself.

we need to get past engaging race in all that happens, this seems fairly simple, young troubled person tweaks and shots at a cop and canine officer…you gotta realize that if that’s the reality of the moment that nothing good is gonna come of it

And at the risk of sounding like I’m now coming to your defense, Eric W. (and everyone else here) might be interested in reading an article in the current issue of The New Yorker, titled “Birdbrain,” which raises exactly those issues. Check their online edition; the author is Margaret Talbot.

Bucdaddy, temendous, tremendous, tremendous comments. Seriously, I rarely laugh on Monday mornings, and today’s the rare exception.

Let me position myself here. I believe that if you shoot at a police officer you should expect to receive return fire, and if in that process you are killed, I belive you deserved to die. I believe that if you shoot at a police dog, the same set of circumstances holds true. And I believe that most of the time, the police tell the truth when they report what happened during any confrontation. I also believe that the circumstances of this event certainly LOOK like it happened the way the police tell it. But I also know that I was not there so I have no idea what the real truth is, and based on that I damn sure am not going to make a fool of myself by stating without a doubt that the kid was guilty of the actions as they have been put forth. That is what our system of justice is for, remember? Innocent until proven guilty applies to everyone, or has George Bush convinced you all differently?

Have the police ever planted evidence at the scene of a crime? Of course they have. Is it possible for a police officer to be in possession of a stolen gun? Of course it is. Is it possible these particular officers knew this person who had criminal history? Of course it is. Is it possible they decided to take the law into their own hands and rid their world of someone they did not like? Absolutely. Did things happen the way I’ve just suggested may be possible? I have absolutely no clue, nor do I veen remotely suggest I think they did. I’m simply pointing out the fact that it is possible. And that possibility is why we have a susyem of justice in place that says you are innocent until proven guilty.

Shame on every single one of you who are so self righteously spouting forth your opinions as if they are facts. That includes you PittGirl. Shame on every one of who who are so positive that this man who was shot was guilty. Unless you were there and witnessed everything, you have no more knowledge of the truth than I do.

I sure do HOPE the police are being honest here, and I agree that it does look like they are. But I would be ashamed of myself if I simply took it on faith that just because someone told me that’s how it really happened, that I believed it. And you all should be equally ashamed. With attitudes like these, we’ll never get Habeus Corpus back.