Two pit bulls were captured on video attacking four police officers as they carried out a raid on their owners’ suspected drug den.
Chocolate Chip and Salami Mami were inside Mr. Exotix’s snack retail shop when cops busted through a glass door with their firearms and came face-to-face with the two dogs.
Body camera footage shows the pit bulls immediately started mauling the officers.
‘Get the dog out or it, they’re going to bite,’ a man can be heard saying in the scuffle.
Even as a suspect had has hands tied behind his back and lay on the ground, his dogs continued to attack.
Officers attempted to Tase the dogs but it initially did not stop them.
One of the pit bulls ‘took a pretty good chunk out of’ an officer’s leg, Webster police Chief Michael Shaw told Boston 25 News.
Four cops were injured including one who required 11 stitches. Three of them were taken to UMass Webster Hospital.
One dog was eventually subdued with a Taser and the other with OC spray.
Shaw said that ‘one of the great things about body cameras is that we can show the public and the community, this is what police are dealing with’.
He praised the cops for their restraint.
‘What angers me more about this is the fact that this was a commercial establishment that was openly distributing narcotics,’ he said.
‘What angers me even more is the resistance the officers encountered by the males inside, and then the two pit bulls attacking them as they attempted to secure the individuals and the scene.’
Cops and FBI agents executed a search warrant at the Massachusetts shop on March 5 after months of an investigation into illegal drugs allegedly being sold from there.
Authorities said they had received reports from a school and parents that the shop was selling to minors. They recovered marijuana, THC products and an unlicensed gun from the site.
Cops arrested Jeffrey Salley, 35, of Yonkers, New York, and Gabriel Blandino, 30, of the Bronx.
Salley has been charged with conspiracy to violate the drug law, possession of an electric stun gun, two counts of possession with intent to distribute a Class C substance, possession with intent to distribute a Class D substance, possession of a Class E substance, and obstruction of justice.
Blandino has been charged with conspiracy to violate the drug law, possession of a firearm without an FID card, possession of ammunition without an FID card, leaving ammunition unattended, possession of an electric stun gun, improperly storing a firearm, two counts of possession with intent to distribute a Class C substance, possession with intent to distribute a Class D substance, and possession of a Class E substance.
Both pit bulls were not up to date with their rabies shots and are being held under a 10-day quarantine.
It happened nearly a year after two pit bulls tore apart a car in the middle of the night in Jacksonville, Florida, while trying to reach a cat hiding in the engine.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].
For more stories like this, check our news page.
