By Owen Boss
Staff Writer
AMHERST - The owner of a dog killed by police during the arrest of an Amherst teen last month is looking for answers after she allegedly found its remains in a creek near the crime scene.
Nicole McLaughlin, of Amherst, said that her friend Joseph C. Russel, 19, of 161 Pine St. in Amherst, picked up her 18-month-old pit bull named "Face" at about 9 p.m. on Dec. 25, the night before he ran from his car and led police on a manhunt through a wooded area in Shutesbury.
Shortly before Russel's arrest, McLaughlin said she received a phone call from him saying he was walking through the woods with her dog and he was headed for a friend's house. She said the phone call ended abruptly, and further attempts to contact him failed because his phone was turned off.
It was only after McLaughlin received a phone call from a friend that she learned that her dog was somehow involved in the incident.
"A friend of mine heard (Russel) was arrested and the pit bull he was with was shot, so I called the police and told them I was the owner and that I wanted my dog's body so I could bury it in the backyard," said McLaughlin.
"They told me that animal control had his body, and when we called animal control they said they didn't know where the body was, so we went to the scene of the arrest and followed a blood trail through the woods and found his body just lying there in a creek nearby," she said.
Before bringing the dog home and burying it, she took pictures of the body. The images reveal that the animal had been shot many times in different parts of its body.
"I feel like the police aren't releasing enough information about what happened that night," said McLaughlin. "I feel like the police took turns shooting my dog."
Shutesbury Police Chief Thomas E. Harding said police are not releasing the information about which officers fired on the dog or how many shots were fired.
When asked what happened to the dog after the arrest, he said, "The owner of the dog picked it up, and that was the last I had heard about it."
McLaughlin said Face was a family pet and during his short life had not shown any signs of aggression toward either herself or her 4-year-old daughter. She also said that Face knew Russel, and she thought it was strange that police said Russel had been bitten by the dog.
"He wasn't a vicious pit bull, he was a family dog, and I don't know if the police are being honest about what happened. They are saying the pit bull was attacking Joseph, but that is impossible because the dog knew him," she said.
The dog was not wearing any tags at the time of the shooting, McLaughlin said, because Russel had left the pet's harness at her home when he took it the night before.
The incident in question
Russel allegedly jumped from his car at about 10 p.m. after a traffic stop in front of the Town Hall on Cooleyville Road and fled on foot with the pit bull, according to Harding. Russel was wanted on warrants out of Eastern Hampshire District Court for a variety of motor vehicle violations and violating his probation.
The officer pursuing Russel, who was unnamed, allegedly caught up with him about 200 yards later and was bitten on the left arm by the dog, before becoming temporarily impaired by the pepper spray he used to defend himself against the dog, the chief said.
The officer called in support from area police departments, including members of the Erving, Montague, Leverett, Sunderland and New Salem police, three members of the Environmental Police and six to eight state police officers, including a dog handler and a police dog.
Russel and the pit bull were tracked to a location on Montague Road, where Russel surrendered.
And when it became apparent that Russel was either unwilling or unable to control the dog, it was shot and killed, Harding said.
Russel has since been charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (pit bull), resisting arrest, trespassing and disturbing the peace.
Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com.
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