An alleged domestic disturbance on Friday ended with the arrest of 47-year-old Arthur David Lopez and the nonfatal shooting of a dog at Lopez’s residence. Police arrived at 1:14 a.m. at a home on the 400 block of Anapamu Street in response to reports of a suicidal person. According to a police report of the incident, Lopez was wielding a knife and challenging officers to shoot him. Offers eventually stunned Lopez with a Taser, causing him to drop his knife, but in the process, a dog - a boxer mix - attacked one of the officers, biting him on the arm. One officer fired a round at the dog, wounding the left side of its head. The two dogs at the residence were taken into custody by Animal Control.
After being treated at Cottage Hospital for a possible neck injury, Lopez was booked into jail on charges of domestic battery, brandishing a knife, resisting arrest, and violation of parole - the last of these stemming from his parole status on a domestic battery conviction.


Print friendly
E-mail story
Tip Us Off
Comments
Share Article
Myspace





Previous Month



Comments
Tasered the man but shot the dog in the head? Why not pepper spray or taser for the dog too :( It seems that the man got the more humane treatment when the dog was only doing his job, protecting his owner. That's sad... I wish they could have subdued him in a less harmful way. I know that they had to do something but shoot him in the head?
santabarbarasand (anonymous profile)
August 19, 2008 at 7:10 a.m. (Suggest removal)
was this on East or West Anapamu?
tom (Tom Morey)
August 19, 2008 at 12:37 p.m. (Suggest removal)
East Anapamu. I saw the hole thing. The artical left out some important detail... other than that, 12 police cars 23 cops i counted. Art Jr. is a 51/50. i havent seen the dog yet.
Anapamu (anonymous profile)
August 19, 2008 at 2:28 p.m. (Suggest removal)
What about the fact that it is a mistake to shoot at a dog when many innocent bystanders are around. Someone could have gotten shot by accident. I would have taken a dog bite than killing an innocent bystander by mistake any day.
rayzindependence (anonymous profile)
August 19, 2008 at 2:49 p.m. (Suggest removal)
and the donut shops cried
lordleadbetter (anonymous profile)
August 19, 2008 at 3:13 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I just love to read Monday morning QB stuff and armchair cops.
So there were 12 cop cars and 23 cops there before the "shots fired" call went out on the radio? Right....paint the picture however you want...Maybe they should have called out the canine crisis negotiation team to talk the dog out of attacking.
azuresees (anonymous profile)
August 19, 2008 at 8:22 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Hmm response to the previous post...
From the news article..there were no shots fired...except for at the dog. This suicidal man had a knife. Canine crisis negotiation team, if there is such an asinine thing would have treated the dog better. The cop fired a round at a DOG...that was protecting it's property. Maybe some pepper spray might be more humane then shooting a dog? I don't know, I wasn't there...but with all those cops maybe one of them could have had a clear head. Sounds to me like a trigger happy cop. Thank god no one was killed or hurt seriously. I hope that poor man gets help. Obviously there is more going on then the story implies. Yeah...that is where the word "allegedly" comes into play. There is my arm chair philosophy.
dustinthewindsb (anonymous profile)
August 19, 2008 at 10:50 p.m. (Suggest removal)
dustinthewindsb, Pepper spray does not affect a DOG like a human, dogs are nearly amuned to the effects, so the animal would have continued the attack or used multi-bites to that officer or others.
dou4now (anonymous profile)
August 23, 2008 at 4:39 p.m. (Suggest removal)