JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A service dog who was shot on Friday by an officer with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office has “a lot of healing ahead of him,” according to the dog’s owner.
“He was shot twice, once scraping his skull and one going through the right side of his body,” Jaimie Phillips, Milo’s owner, said. “The third shot, I was hit with [and it] grazed my inner leg.”
RELATED: JSO officer shoots service dog that bit him while responding to heated confrontation in Riverside
On Friday, JSO officers attempted to quell a heated, armed confrontation in the Riverside neighborhood.
A woman’s husband was the victim of a car burglary. JSO said the woman, identified as Jaimie Phillips, her 4-year-old daughter, and their 10-year-old German Shepard, Milo, were searching to recover important items left behind from the burglary on the railroad tracks near College Street and Roosevelt Boulevard.
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While dealing with two people arguing, an officer was bitten by Milo, a German Shepherd who was assigned to Phillips through the Wounded Warriors program for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
News4JAX spoke with Milo’s owner about the encounter.
“This lady came out of nowhere, and she said, ‘That’s my bike. Don’t take it. I said I don’t want your bike. I’m looking for some things that we got stolen from us.' And she just kept on, and she got in my face and she pushed me,” Phillips said.
JSO said the women started pushing each other and arguing over a “misunderstanding.” Phillips warned the other woman that she had a gun.
The other woman told her to call the police. Phillips called the police and informed them that she had a gun in a holster on her hips.
By the time JSO arrived at the scene around 2:30 p.m., the women could still be heard yelling.
According to police, JSO separated the two, detaining the other woman.
Officer Milan Jones attempted to get to Phillips but the dog lunged at Jones, biting him on his left leg.
“I had my hands up in the air with the leash and everything, and he got he just kept coming forward, and I was begging him to please, let me tie my dog up and he would not do that,” Phillips said.
Jones fired three shots at the dog and a fragment of a bullet ricocheted and struck Phillips in the shin area of her left leg.
“The bullets went through my dog and hit the ground and came up and went into my leg. That’s where they are now,” Phillips said.
The dog was doing okay, police said, but Phillips said Milo was in surgery. Phillips was taken to the hospital, and the child was unharmed.
Phillips said she expects to be fine but is concerned about Milo.
“He saved me out of a dark place that the Marine Corps put me in, and he’s everything,” Phillips said.
A GoFundMe was set up by Phillips to help cover Milo’s medical expenses, which can be found here.