Cops probe gunshot killing of pit bull in E. Setauket

Timothy Devine was waiting for his daughters to get home from school when a child's shriek pierced his East Setauket neighborhood.

Ten terrifying minutes later, he stood in his front yard, a gun in his hand, as his neighbor's pit bull staggered away, bleeding from a chest wound.

Outside his Quail Lane home Wednesday, Devine, 43, said he was "devastated" by the Tuesday shooting - but didn't regret pulling the trigger.

"Look, I didn't go looking for this. I got nothing against dogs," he said. "If it hadn't been coming after me, I wouldn't have shot it."

Devine's 9-mm handgun, which he says he uses for target practice, is now with Suffolk police. The weapon is properly registered and Devine has a permit, police said. No charges are expected, police said, but the investigation is continuing. Police said so far they have been unable to speak with the dog's owner.

Devine, an EMT with Brookhaven National Lab's fire department, was inside at about 2:45 p.m. when he heard "barking and screaming" coming from the street and grabbed his pistol, he said. After seeing a white adult pit bull chase a child on a bike up the street, Devine called 911.

"What I told them was 'you got a problem here, this dog is out and you got kids coming home from school right now.'"

Within moments, the dog returned and was running and barking in Devine's yard as his 18-year-old daughter arrived in a car with a friend. She quickly left as Devine shouted a warning, he said. Then, a school bus pulled up outside his next-door neighbor's house, and the 13-year-old girl who lives there stepped off.

Devine, who described the animal as "very agitated," said the pit bull began moving toward the girl. Devine yelled at her to run inside and tried to attract the dog. It then turned and ran back toward Devine. With the dog within a few feet, he fired once as he backed up toward his home. The dog limped away, collapsed on his owner's concrete stoop and later died. A Suffolk ASPCA veterinarian was to do a necropsy on the animal, as requested by police.

The mother of the 13-year-old, who asked that her name not be used, said the girl was scared but unhurt. She said the dog has been a concern for two years, often barking on a rope in the front yard and sometimes getting free, she said.

"I know there are neighbors who won't come to this end of the block because of that dog," she said. "My daughter is scared of dogs and that dog in particular."

A rope with a brass hook tied to a tree lay in the dog owner's front yard. No one answered the door Wednesday and no answered a phone number listed there. Police said a neighbor reported a year ago that a "vicious" pit bull was loose; officers returned it to the home with a warning to the owner.

Brookhaven Town officials said they could not reach the animal control division to check on any other complaints about the dog.

With Bill Mason