San Francisco police officers shot a man and his dog on Sunday afternoon near Union Square, the police department said in a statement, when they were “flagged down by a dog bit victim” after a “large off leashed dog bit the victim unprovoked.”
Officers responded to Market and O’Farrell streets at around 4:27 p.m., the department said.
The police department said the canine “continued showing aggression towards others in the area” and the police shot both while officers tried to arrest the man and “secure” his dog. The dog, the department added, “fled from the area and then returned to the scene and bit one of the responding officers.”
The shooting victim was treated by paramedics at the scene and hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, the department said. Animal Care and Control took the dog into its custody.
The officer bit by the dog suffered minor injuries and was treated on site, the department said. The initial dog bit victim took himself to the hospital, the department said.
The shooting is being investigated by several city agencies, including the district attorney’s office, the San Francisco Police Department’s investigative division and its internal affairs division, and the Department of Police Accountability.
As with every police shooting in San Francisco, the department will hold a public town hall within 10 days to release more information.
Joe was born in Sweden, where half of his family received asylum after fleeing Pinochet, and then spent his early childhood in Chile; he moved to Oakland when he was eight. He attended Stanford University for political science and worked at Mission Local as a reporter after graduating. He then spent time at YIMBY Action and as a partner for the strategic communications firm The Worker Agency. He rejoined Mission Local as an editor in 2023. You can reach him on Signal @jrivanob.99.