KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Kansas City, Missouri, animal control officer had a gun pulled on him Saturday as he checked on a stray dog.
“I am so thankful to be alive tonight,” KC Animal Health and Public Safety Animal Control Officer James Donovan said in a Facebook post about the incident.
Donovan was dispatched around 4:45 p.m. to check on a stray dog in the area of 24th Street and Chelsea Avenue.
He spotted a different dog on the loose in the neighborhood a couple blocks from that scene and followed it to a house.
That’s when things to a dramatic turn.
A person at the house pulled out a gun when Donovan confronted him about allowing the dog to roam free.
According to Donovan’s posts on social media, the suspect dropped the gun and Donovan stepped on it, hoping to prevent the individual from picking it up again.
During the ensuing struggle, Donovan said he hit the emergency button on his radio, but it did not go off.
The suspect then regained control of the gun, pointed it at Donovan, took his radio and notepad with a license plate number written on it, and fled the scene, according to Donovan.
“I am just thankful that God was on my side tonight, it could have been very tragic tonight!” Donovan said.
City manager Troy Schulte tweeted his thoughts from the official KCMO account: “James is an animal control officer for @KCMO. He shouldn’t have to deal with this to just do his job.”
James is an animal control officer for @KCMO. He shouldn’t have to deal with this to just do his job. https://t.co/f2mIQihOq7
— KC City Manager (@KCMOManager) September 30, 2018
