By Maria Cramer
The Boston Globe
LYNN, Mass. — A Lynn police officer was accidentally shot in the leg by another officer yesterday as they subdued and captured a pit bull terrier at a house where police were pursuing suspected car thieves.
The injured officer, a six-year veteran of the police department, was attacked by the dog after he and other officers tried to subdue the animal with rubber projectiles.
Another officer fired his gun in an attempt to help the policeman, but the shot hit the officer in the lower left leg. He was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital.
In a prepared statement, the Lynn Police Department said that the wounded officer, who was not identified, was “conscious and alert.”
The dog was removed from the house on Gardner Street and put down.
Lynn police had arrived at the house about 12:20 p.m. after officer Robert Avery began investigating a report of a 2000 Honda Civic stolen from Natick. He found the car in the driveway of the house and saw the vehicle was missing the registration plates and appeared to be stripped of parts, police said. Near the Honda, officers saw another car and parts.
Officers found a man inside one of the cars and detained him. The officers then heard a sound in the adjacent garage, and when they knocked several men fled.
In total, officers arrested six people from Lynn and charged them with receiving a stolen motor vehicle.
They were: Jorge Orozco Jr., 23; Jessica M. Sisson, 30; Ricardo Bautista, 18, who also was charged with possession of burglarious tools; Aneury Reyes Ozuna, 23, also charged with possession of a master motor vehicle key; and Warlin Santiago and Alex Ramos, both 24, also charged with default warrants from area courts.
Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company
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