Two Detroit police officers ended up in the hospital after officers opened fire on a dog that broke loose and charged at them during a call on the 18500 block of Ferguson. One officer was bitten by the dog, and a second officer was shot in the leg by crossfire during the chaos. Both were expected to be okay.
According to FOX 2 Detroit, police shot the dog after officials said it bit an officer. Per Detroit police, officers had been called to the Ferguson Street home, and a caller exited her home to speak with them when the dog became loose after its leash came off and ran toward the officers. Detroit police said they shot at the dog as it charged, and in the process, another officer was struck in the leg by crossfire.
Per officials, the bitten officer was taken to a hospital and is expected to be okay, as is the officer who was shot in the leg, according to Detroit police. The FOX 2 report notes that two officers were in the hospital following the incident. The original reason for the police call has not been disclosed, and the report describes it as unknown.
Dog's Condition Remains Unclear
Detroit police have not commented on the condition of the dog after the shooting, per the FOX 2 report. The station says it used information from Detroit police for the report's details and plans to update the story as more information becomes available.
There is also a discrepancy in reported timing: one FOX 2 account states the police call occurred on a Friday at 8:40 p.m., while a separate FOX 2 search snippet describes the shooting as happening on a Monday night. Hoodline could not independently reconcile the two timeframes from the available reporting.
Not the First Time Officers Have Been Hurt Firing at Dogs
This is not the first time a Detroit officer firing at a dog has ended up hurting a colleague or themselves. In September 2022, an officer accidentally shot a partner in the leg while aiming at an off-leash dog during a call on the city's west side, according to The Detroit News. That officer was hospitalized in stable condition at Sinai-Grace Hospital, and police said the dog itself was not struck by a bullet.
In a more recent case reported in late December 2025, a dog attacked a Detroit officer, and the officer who fired shots to stop the attack accidentally struck himself in the foot. The Detroit Free Press reported that the injured officer was out of the hospital by that Wednesday evening, though the dog in that incident died. The available evidence does not establish how common these incidents are across the department, only that this is at least the third documented case in recent years.
