MOORESVILLE, N.C. — Pinch, the pit bull, is having a difficult time getting around these days after a bullet went through her paw. She was shot a total of three times on October 17th. The shooter: a Mooresville police officer who says the dog aggressively approached him.
John and Melissa Loper call that claim bogus, and they say the same about a new accusation that surfaced Wednesday. The new accusation is that last November, Pinch bit a woman after getting out of her fenced-in backyard and running to an intersection about a quarter of a mile away.
The police released the report. It classifies the injuries as “minor” and the case is marked “closed/cleared.” The woman’s name has been redacted, but the report indicates she doesn’t live in Mooresville. The woman apparently says she recently recognized Pinch from social media. John Loper says, “I don’t know how in the world they would ever prove something like that.”
The Lopers say the police have given them three versions of where Pinch and their chihuahua were the day of the shooting. “The first story is that they were up by the apartments… Then the next story was that an officer patrolling seen (sic) the dogs on the side of the road… and then it changed to where they were in the road and tried to get them outta the road.”
Loper has declined to be interviewed on-camera about the incident — until now. He says, “We’ve tried not to bash the police. We understand there’s a process. We understand that people are human, they make rash decisions that are mistakes. We all do. It’s just kinda crazy; it seems like the story continues to change to stack up to look bad on us.”
The Mooresville Police Department declined to comment, but tells WCCB the investigation into the shooting will be wrapped up on Friday, and they’ll release more information then.
