SWAT team kills pit bull: Man holds 13-year-old in home, sics dog on police

maryville, tennessee A 35-year-old Maryville woman called police after her live-in boyfriend allegedly drunkenly kicked her out of the house and then held her 13-year-old daughter in the home, prompting the SWAT team to respond to the scene.

“Not only had he locked the doors, but he took some kind of roping device and roped the doors shut,” Maryville Police Chief Tony Crisp said Tuesday.

When authorities finally got inside, the man sicced his pit bull on them, prompting them to shoot and kill the dog, Crisp said.

The woman called police at about 12:30 a.m. Tuesday and the 32-year-old man was eventually taken into custody about two hours later at the Clark Street address. The man has not yet been charged, but Crisp anticipates that authorities will charge the man soon.

“(The woman) stated that the two of them had been in a verbal argument and he made threats, causing her to be in fear of her safety,” Officer John Foley said in the police report.

The woman fled the house, but her 13-year-old daughter was still inside, authorities said.

Police attempted to make contact with the man, who would not respond to police.

Even after getting someone to come to the home with a key, authorities could not get in because the man had roped off the doors.

“He wouldn’t respond to us and we knew he was impaired,” Crisp said. (The woman) told us there was a pit bull inside trained to be an attack dog.”

Authorities could hear the dog inside and when they finally entered the home, the man gave commands such as “sic” and “kill,” Crisp said.

“He did sic the dog on us,” he said. “He gave commands on the dog to do an assault. We did have to execute that dog. It did attack our officers.”

The 13-year-old girl was found unharmed and was released to her mother, according to the report.