Police reviewing handling of dog struck by car

Painesville Police Department has three supervisors reviewing how one of its officers handled a situation involving a dog that was hit by a car.

The incident occurred June 21, according to Painesville police. The department received a call from a woman who was behind traffic near Rider’s Inn in the area of Mentor Avenue and Chestnut Street when a vehicle several cars in front of her struck a dog in the roadway.

According to a news release from police, the woman stopped and covered the dog with a sheet as it was lying on the sidewalk in front of Rider’s Inn.

The caller said the dog died a short time before the officer arrived on scene.

She told Acting Police Chief Dan Waterman that in her view, the officer “was just being lazy and was kicking at the sheet to cover the dog completely before picking it up.”

The officer admitted to nudging the dog with his foot in order to make sure he would not be bitten before picking up the dog, Waterman said in the release.

Waterman said the officer — unaware children were watching — grabbed the dog by its front legs and loaded it into the trunk of another officer’s cruiser who had arrived on scene to assist.

“We are fully aware that those observing this incident were upset by the abrupt manner in which the officer loaded the dog into the trunk of a cruiser,” Waterman wrote. “This could have been alleviated by waiting for another officer to assist, so that the process of picking the dog up would have been more discreet. Doing so would have of course been preferable, and would have allowed us to avoid the appearance that he did not care about the animal.”

Waterman said they’ve reached out and made “full apologies” to the original caller and to the owners of the dog.

“We deeply regret that anyone had to observe this incident and apologize to them for having to have seen this take place,” he said. “We will be making certain that incidents like this will not be handled in this manner in the future, and this incident is under review by myself and our internal investigations supervisors to determine what discipline and corrective measures will be taken regarding this incident.”