By Darran Simon
The Philadelphia Inquirer
CAMDEN, NJ — What appeared to be bullet holes in at least two cars, a house window, and near a doorway on Lemuel Street in Camden suggested a gunfight.
But witnesses said the scene was the remnants of police firing on a pit bull around 9 p.m. Friday.
More than 100 feet and across the street from where the dog fell, a bullet shattered a piece of Delia Rodriguez’s front window. She had grabbed her grandchildren off a living room couch, pulled them to the floor, and flopped onto them for protection.
Another bullet hit her daughter’s minivan parked in the driveway, sending her two adult daughters scrambling out of the already open doors. They stumbled and fell over each other to get back into the house Friday night.
Days after the shooting in the Baldwin’s Run neighborhood, some residents recounted Monday what they said was a chaotic scene involving several officers firing a barrage of shots at a dog that was, according to a few residents, playfully galloping up the street. A city spokesman said the dog attacked the officers, who had responded to an unrelated call for a neighborhood disturbance.
The officers involved in the incident have been placed on administrative duties while an investigation continues, which is department policy for shootings involving police, according to a statement from the city.
Police Chief Scott Thomson did not respond to text messages for comments Monday.
One witness, who did not want to be identified, described hearing what sounded like gunshots before the pit bull “came chasing like he was going to attack the police officer” - and before officers drew their weapons.
Witnesses - some reporting as many as 30 shots - criticized the officers as using excessive force. They said the dog had been on a leash but was running loose.
“It was something that was uncalled for. It was too much intense force,” said Kelli Lumpkin, who said she witnessed the shooting from a second-floor balcony above the lawn of her neighbor’s adjoining house. There, a cross and candles Monday marked where the dog was shot.
City spokesman Robert Corrales did not have information on the number of shots fired, or how many officers had discharged their weapons. He said more than one officer responded to the disturbance call.
Lumpkin pointed to a bullet hole in the rear passenger-side door of her minivan. The vehicle had been parked in her driveway Friday night, about 30 feet from where the pit bull was shot.
At least two witnesses said three police officers fired on the dog.
Capone, an eight-month-old pit bull that Sherronda Aycox’s 11-year-old son has had since the dog was eight weeks old, escaped from Aycox’s house, which adjoins Rodriguez’s. Aycox, 36, who didn’t witness the shooting, said neighbors told her that the dog was “running side to side” in a nonthreatening manner.
“He was like the neighborhood dog,” she said.
Witness Tyrone Joseph said he heard one officer yell: “Get your dog.”
According to Joseph, another officer directed: “Don’t shoot the dog.”
Across the street, three bullets hit the doors on the driver’s side of Alexsandro Mercado’s Pontiac Grand Am - which had been parked Friday night at least 50 feet from where the dog was shot.
Another 50 feet from there, a bullet struck the living room window of the Rodriguez house. She had been watching a show on Nickelodeon with five of her grandchildren. A sixth grandchild was sleeping nearby, she said.
“I just had to throw my body on them,” Rodriguez, 54, said. “They just kept looking at me like, ‘What are we going to do?’ ”
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