Cops Hit by Own Shots During Pitbull Attack

Six officers draw guns on snarling dog

Three cops trying to fend of a ferocious pitbull were hit with ricocheting bullets Wednesday night when they began shooting at the dog in a narrow hallway of an upper East Side building, cops said.

The snarling dog either bit or scratched three additional officers before cops shot and killed the animal. The injuries were not serious but one cop was hit under the eye, police told the New York Daily News.

"At first we thought it was firecrackers," witness Samaria Marrero told the News. "We went to see to be nosy and there was a cop on the floor."

Cops said the woman in the 11th floor apartment in the Isaacs Houses "deliberately" set the pitbull on the cops after they were summoned to the flat on First Ave. and 94th St. to investigate a call about an assault with a gun. 

All six officers went for their guns while trying to keep the dog from attacking, cops told the Daily News.

The worst of the injuries was an officer who was hit by a bullet fragment just below the eye. One cops was hit on his hand and another on the side of his nose.

Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne said five others barricaded themselves in the apartment for a half hour but then quietly surrendered.

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