Off-duty officer shoots, kills dog in attack in east Las Vegas

An off-duty Las Vegas police officer shot and killed a dog after it attacked a smaller dog Friday in the east valley, animal control documents show.

Witnesses said two retrievers attacked a dachshund about 5 p.m. Friday on the 5800 block of Brisbane Place, near East Bonanza Road and North Sloan Lane.

A friend of Maureen Schorn, the retrievers’ owner, had come to Schorn’s house to take them for a walk. The leashed dogs escaped while the friend and her daughter tried to put them in her car. They ran toward a neighbor’s yard and the dachshund, witnesses said in a report.

Neighbors tried separating the dogs before another neighbor, the off-duty officer, shot twice toward the dogs, according to the report.

After the shooting, Schorn’s friend put the dogs in her car and drove toward Sunrise Mountain. When they arrived about five minutes later, she noticed one of them, an 8-year-old golden retriever named Moto, was injured and lying motionless in the car. The friend returned to the neighborhood, where police checked Moto and said he was dead.

The neighbor’s dachshund had no visible injuries, the report said.

The Metropolitan Police Department confirmed the shooter was an off-duty officer. He is on regular duty, spokesman Jay Rivera said, and Metro is conducting an internal investigation.

Schorn, 65, was inside the house when the shooting happened, she said. But she denies that Moto would attack another dog.

“I don’t believe their story, frankly,” Schorn said, referring to witnesses. “I know my animals.”

She said his death felt like losing a family member.

“He didn’t deserve to die that way,” Schorn said.

Contact Blake Apgar at bapgar@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5298. Follow @blakeapgar on Twitter. Contact Mike Shoro at mshoro@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Follow @mike_shoro on Twitter.