By Dominic Kelly, Wed, July 23, 2014
A New Jersey police officer accidentally shot himself in the hand while trying to shoot a dog.
According to reports, the unidentified Clifton police officer responded to a call at a residential home in Bloomfield on Monday afternoon when the incident happened.
Anthony Ambrose, chief detective for the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office, says that when the officer knocked on the door, someone opened the door and the pit bull charged outside towards the officer. The cop immediately reacted to the charging dog and fired a single shot towards it, but instead of hitting only the dog, he also struck his own hand.
The officer was rushed to a local hospital and is said to be recovering from his gunshot wound. He is reportedly in stable condition. The dog was apparently taken in by local animal control to be treated for the injury it sustained from the shooting incident. A second officer at the scene was unharmed.
Ambrose says that the injured detective has been with the Clifton police department for 16 years, and the two officers were reportedly there in Bloomfield to investigate an case in Clifton.
An investigation into the shooting incident is ongoing.
