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Family Upset After Sheriff's Deputy Shoots Dog On Leash

Deputy Was Looking For Neighbor In Brighton Heights

POSTED: 11:16 pm EST November 13, 2008
UPDATED: 8:13 am EST November 14, 2008

A Pittsburgh family's puppy is dead after he was shot at point-blank range on a leash by an Allegheny County Sheriff's deputy.

The 10-month-old dog, Lincoln, was in the back yard of his home in Brighton Heights. Owners said the deputy was trying to serve papers to neighbors on Davis Avenue, but they said the deputy went to the wrong entrance.

Tara Mangan, who lives in a duplex, said that she told the deputy how to get to her neighbor's door and that he was not entering a hostile situation. Somehow the deputy passed her door and ended up in the back yard, where Lincoln was on a leash, Mangan said.

"I had to sit down when my son was crying and my daughter was crying and explain to them what happened," said Mangan.

Lincoln's trainer, Sharon McNeal, said the dog was gentle and often played with the family's 3-year-old daughter and 11-year-old son.

"That's murder," said McNeal. "Downright murder, and that's animal cruelty."

The sheriff's office would only say that the deputy went around the building, the dog lunged at him, so he shot.

"He (the dog) was never aggressive, never mean," said neighbor Ryan Reppert. "I had cats, and he never went for them."

The Mangans said they aren't sure if they will get Lincoln back to give him a private burial.

The Mangans said they would like the deputy who shot their dog to apologize to their son, who is heartbroken about his dog's death.


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