Dog Wounded by D.C. Police Responding to Report of Possible Burglary

D.C. police are investigating an incident Tuesday in which a German shepherd was shot and his owners might have been injured by officers who went to a Northwest Washington home in response to a possible burglary, authorities said.

Officers went to a two-story rowhouse in the 800 block of Sheridan Street after 8 p.m. A neighbor had reported seeing two men climbing through a window, said Cmdr. Linda Brown of the 4th Police District. Plainclothes officers went to an alley behind the house, where they said the dog threatened them and one officer fired at him, she said.

The officers handcuffed two men in the back of the house, and a uniformed officer handcuffed a man at the front door while they investigated the burglary report, Brown said. They learned that one of the men who had gone through the window, Carlos Hernandez, 21, lived there and had forgotten his keys, Hernandez and police said.

He and his father, Isabel Moreno, 69, said they opened their front and back doors and found officers pointing guns. The men's 2-year-old dog, Sam, charged out of the back door and barked at officers in the alley, Hernandez said.

"I told him three times, 'Don't fire,' " Hernandez said. "They pointed the gun at me and said, 'Don't move.' "

He said that officers forced him to the ground and that he hurt his eye as he was handcuffed.

Moreno said through an interpreter that he heard pounding on the front door and that when he opened it, he was facing a gun. An officer pulled him out of the house by the shirt and threw him facedown on the concrete porch, and he bumped his forehead, he said.

"We need authorities to protect honest people in the community, not to be a threat," said Moreno, an out-of-work cook and construction worker, through the interpreter.

Last night, the dog was in critical condition at Friendship Hospital for Animals. The men said they were told that surgery on the dog would cost at least $1,800.

"They are advising me to put him to sleep, but I don't want to," Moreno said. "He listens to me more than my own kids. He's a real good dog."

Police said Moreno was handcuffed because he was intoxicated and irate. He, his son and the officers will be interviewed, Brown said.