Off-duty correctional officer Anthony Davis heard a commotion while in Brooklyn at about 1:20 in the afternoon and went running over. Davis saw a man bleeding and screaming as he was being attacked by a pit bull. The dog was clamped on the man’s chin.
Davis tried pushing and kicking the dog to get it to let go, but he gave up after about a minute and fired a round into the dog’s head with his personal 9 mm pistol that he is legally entitled to carry. Even after the dog had been killed, it took several minutes before its jaws unclenched.
The victim, known only as Bemo, was a homeless man who was hanging out with a friend. Witnesses said that another homeless man who often hangs out in the same place was the dog’s owner, but police could not confirm that information. The two men had been drinking together, and officials said that the dog attacked when Bemo was helping the other man get up.
Bemo was treated at New York Methodist Hospital for bites to his arm and leg, while Davis was treated for trauma. As a dog lover, Davis felt badly for killing the dog, but his priority was to save the man’s life. Witness Rasheed Shaabazz told the New York Daily News that the dog was “going bananas” and that the officer had no choice but to kill the animal. Unfortunately, this attack is a trend for dogs belonging to homeless people in New York City.
Davis is a 10-year veteran of the Correction Department and works at the Brooklyn House of Detention.