Searsport police shoot dog during a man’s arrest

Searsport police officers shot a dog on Monday afternoon while arresting a man.

The officers had stopped the man’s vehicle on Porter Street at around 1:43 p.m., after they received a complaint about him driving poorly on East Main Street and then pursued him with lights and sirens for almost three miles through town.

The man, Rodney Damon of Stockton Springs, then allegedly got out of the vehicle, let his dog out as well, and did nothing to stop it when it approached the officers, according to a press release from Chief Brian Lunt of the Searsport Police Department.

The officers “commanded the male to call his dog back and allowed him the opportunity to do so,” said Lunt, who was one of the two officers present for the arrest. “However he chose instead to disregard their command and the dog continued to the officers in a manner that had them concerned it may attack them.”

In response, one of the officers fired a single round that hit the dog in the shoulder and forced it to retreat back to its owner, according to Lunt. Lunt did not indicate which officer fired a weapon.

Lunt was able to load the dog into his vehicle and bring it to a local veterinarian for treatment. He did not indicate what condition the dog was in.

The other Searsport police officer, Chris Therrien, arrested Damon on charges of failing to stop for a law enforcement officer and operating an unregistered motor vehicle. He was taken to the Waldo County jail.