A Chicago police officer opened fire on a pit bull Monday morning after the dog allegedly charged at officers responding to a domestic disturbance call in North Lawndale, according to police. Both officers suffered minor injuries in the encounter, which unfolded in the 3300 block of West Douglas Boulevard, and the dog was taken for medical attention afterward.
Two officers had responded to a call of a domestic disturbance when the pit bull allegedly charged at them, according to ABC7 Chicago. One officer fired a weapon and struck the dog. Nobody else was reported hurt, and the Chicago Police Department said it is investigating the shooting. There is a discrepancy over the exact timing: ABC7 reported the incident happened at about 7:23 a.m., while WGN-TV put the time at 7:20 a.m., with WGN also reporting that Area Four detectives are investigating the incident.
Second Dog Shooting In Chicago Within A Week
The North Lawndale shooting comes just days after a separate, more violent encounter on the city's West Side. On September 21, a dog was shot and killed by police after an attack that left three officers injured in Humboldt Park, according to NBC Chicago. That incident happened at around 4:52 p.m. near North Christiana Avenue and West Huron Street, and all three officers were treated at area hospitals for non-life-threatening injuries and released in good condition, the outlet reported.
Dog shootings by Chicago police are not new, and past cases have sometimes carried a steep price tag for the city. In 2015, an officer shot and killed a mixed-breed dog named Rozay during a South Side raid, and the city later paid $88,500 to settle the owners' lawsuit, per the Chicago Sun-Times. An earlier case in 2009 cost the city $333,000 after an officer shot and killed Lady, a black Labrador retriever, during the execution of a search warrant, according to the same reporting.
A Pattern With Little Disciplinary Follow-Through
The Sun-Times reporting found that roughly 700 dogs had been shot or shot at by Chicago police since 2008, and that not one of those shootings resulted in a recommendation of discipline against an officer — even in cases where courts found a dog had been wrongly killed. Police officials at the time pointed to a decline in such incidents, citing 73 animals shot in 2014 and 24 in 2017, a 67 percent decrease over three years. That figure and the broader historical trend reflect reporting from 2018 and should not be read as a current total.
Not every case involving Chicago police and a dog draws the same scrutiny. In April 2024, an off-duty officer fired a single shot at a dog that had engaged the officer's own dog near 500 W. 29th Street, fatally wounding the animal, according to the Civilian Office of Police Accountability. No person was struck in that incident. COPA said it released third-party video, radio transmissions from the Office of Emergency Management and Communications, and case incident and tactical response reports tied to that shooting, and the agency recommended CPD evaluate the officer's assignment and consider administrative duties or relief of powers while the investigation was pending.
How Chicago Tracks Use-Of-Force Cases
Oversight of these incidents runs through the city's tactical response report system. The Chicago Office of Inspector General maintains a public dashboard tracking subject actions that CPD reports as leading to a use of force, with records dating back to January 1, 2015. The dashboard is typically refreshed weekly on Sundays and includes only completed reports with a status of Approved, Submitted, or Preliminary.
For now, the circumstances of Monday's North Lawndale shooting remain under review. Police have not released additional details beyond confirming that both responding officers were treated for minor injuries and that the dog received medical attention after being struck.
