Cops expect to pay for dog they shot

Update: City police have acknowledged that an officer made a mistake when he shot an innocent man's dog to death Wednesday night during a narcotics bust in West Philadelphia.

"My feeling is that the owner of the dog will seek and will probably, definitely get some type of reimbursement from the city," said Lt. Ray Evers, police spokesman.

Following complaints from neighbors about drug sales coming out of a home on Pennsgrove Street near 42nd, police set up a surveillance operation of the house Wednesday night and busted five buyers, Evers said.

When uniformed officers moved in to arrest the alleged drug dealer, Kenneth Nicholson, 36, his immediate next door neighbor came out of his residence at the same time and one of the cops became confused and went after the neighbor instead of Nicholson, Evers said.

When he grabbed the man in the foyer of his home, the man's German Shepherd bit the officer on his right calf and the cop shot and killed the dog, police said.

Nicholson was taken into custody and found to be in possession of 68 packets of crack cocaine and one large rock of the substance, Evers said.

Evers said the officer who killed the dog is 49 with 15 years on the job. The cop has a good record and this was the first time he fired his gun, police said.

~Stephanie Farr

"The department has offered an apology," Evers said. "Mistakes happen."

Original post:

Police shot and killed a dog in West Philadelphia Wednesday night after the dog bit a cop, police said.

Police were on Pennsgrove Street near 42^nd, in West Philadelphia, for a narcotics-related search when a dog bit a cop on his ankle at 8:46 p.m.

The officer fatally shot the dog. The cop was taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was reported in stable condition Wednesday night.