A fight between two dogs on Hickory Street led to the death of both animals and four charges against the owner of one of the dogs, according to the Commerce Police Department.
Two officers responded to the initial complaint, and a third, a supervisor arrived shortly thereafter.
The first officer reported being able to hear the dogs fighting. He spotted a pit bull biting a German shepherd and heard onlookers demanding that he “shoot the dog.”
An officer tried to frighten the pit bull by yelling at it, but that was unsuccessful. Upon arrival of the supervisor, one of the officers used his chemical spray on the pit bull, which caused it to back off briefly before attacking the dog again, according to the incident report.
After a second dose of the spray, the officers reported that the dog began walking toward police, so an officer used his taser on the animal. That put the dog down, but when the electric shock ended in about five seconds, the pit bull got up and began advancing toward police again. A second tasing had no effect, so one of the officers shot the pit bull, killing it.
Meanwhile, a man who early in the process claimed to be the owner of the pit bull had retreated into a residence nearby. When police went to speak with him, the man said he did not own the dog and gave police a name and date of birth for which the state database had no match.
An officer got permission and searched the man, finding a wallet with a check made out to John Nunns. The suspect claimed John Nunns was a cousin and that the two had “switched wallets.” After the officer found other information, the suspect admitted to being Hubert John Nunns, 28, of 174 Cotton Street, Commerce.
Police charged him with having an animal at large, giving false information, obstruction of officers and on an unspecified Jackson County warrant.
The owner of the German shepherd later told police that he’d had to have the animal put down because of the severity of its injuries.
