ST. GEORGE – An incident involving an alleged dog attack led to a police officer using a stun gun on the animal Friday.
Around 4:20 p.m., Friday, St. George Police officers responded to what was described as an animal bite call. The call turned out to be connected to an alleged domestic violence incident.
The woman who called police told them them Robert C. Wilson, 58, of St. George, had hit her in the head with a picture frame. The woman also alleged that Wilson “riled up his dog, removed its muzzle which covered its mouth, and unleashed it,” according to a probable cause statement.
The dog attacked the woman and she sustained various wounds on an arm and hand that a responding officer wrote were consistent in appearance with dog bites. He also observed a wound on her head.
Police attempted to make contact with Wilson and announced their presence the door of his home. While there, the officer began to hear barking from within the house.
“The door opened and a large dog came running at me,” the officer wrote in the statement. The officer began stepping back as fast as he could and noticed the dog wasn’t wearing a muzzle.
“I feared for my safety and deployed my (Taser) which stopped the dog’s progress,” the officer wrote.
The dog was later confirmed to be a pit bull and was taken to the St. George Animal Shelter by Animal Services, St. George Police officer Lona Trombley said Tuesday.
Wilson was taken into custody and booked in the Washington County Purgatory Correctional Facility and subsequently charged with a count of third-degree felony domestic violence aggravated assault involving a weapon and two infractions related to the dog attacks.
He has since been released from jail on bail and is slated to appear in count in January.
Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2016, all rights reserved.
And that’s what makes St George police the best trained officers. The rest of the country should take note. These officers don’t use their gun, unless they are under fire. We all know there have been reports where we wouldn’t have complained if they shot the person…. but they don’t pull the trigger and that makes them top notch.
I don’t have a problem with what the officer did. to bad they didn’t use the taser on the dogs owner also
An @$$hat like that has no business owning a pit bull. Poor doggy. Poor wife. I hope she re-homes the dog and moves out while his dumb@$$ is in jail.