FBI Investigating Agent's Dog Killing in Maryland Park
FBI and police are investigating the incident, the bureau says.
-- The FBI says it is investigating an incident in which an agent shot and killed a dog after it broke free from its owner and attacked the agent's dog in a Maryland park.
The FBI said there is an ongoing joint investigation into the incident Friday with the Anne Arundel County Police Department.
Carol Feldhaus, who was in Anne Arundel for the holidays, said she was walking her daughter's Great Dane with her 4-year-old grandson in a Glen Burnie, Maryland, park, when she says the agent ignored her warning to keep the smaller dog a safe distance away, sparking the incident.
She said the and her grandson entered a narrow footbidge at the same time as a man entered the other end with a smaller dog, and she told him to wait until they had crossed.
The man kept coming, she said, and Flynn the Great Dane pulled her off her feet trying to get to the other dog.
"I heard the dogs barking at each other and growl," she said. "Next thing I heard was bam-bam! And I'm half way up and the dog just walks to me and drops and there's blood everywhere.
"I was just like in shock and I yelled, 'You shot the dog,' he said he was an undercover cop and he was protecting his dog," she said. "Pulling a gun and shooting another dog in a park. What is wrong with this man?"
Amanda Ericson, the dog's owner, said she thinks the agent went too far to separate the dogs. She said she thought he could have kicked the dogs or tried to yank them apart by their collars.
Ericson said told ABC affiliate WMAR-TV in Baltimore that her dog had never attacked another dog before, and said she thought Flynn might have been trying to protect her son.
The FBI ackowledged that the incident occurred and said it is investigating.
"Initial information is that an approximately 180 pound dog broke free from the woman walking it along a footpath near Hopkins Corner and attacked a much smaller dog," the FBI said in a statement. "An Agent shot and killed the larger dog. No one else was hurt. We are working jointly with Anne Arundel County PD, as well as the Inspection Division from FBI Headquarters to investigate."