Police fatally shoot pit bull after attacks

November 14, 2007

Boston police fatally shot a pit bull early yesterday after the dog attacked two people and approached an officer. When officers arrived on Wareham Street in the South End about 12:08 a.m., they found two men and another dog who had been bitten by the pit bull, police said. The pit bull then approached an officer, who fired his gun and killed the dog. The men had injuries that were not life-threatening, but one was taken to Boston Medical Center for treatment, and the officer was taken to another hospital for evaluation, police said. The Firearm Discharge Investigation Team is investigating.

Eight of 18 people arrested Sunday for disrupting a Veterans Day parade were arraigned yesterday in Boston Municipal Court, the Suffolk district attorney's office reported. Each was charged with disturbing a public assembly and released on personal recognizance, pending a Dec. 14 court date. The other 10 arrested are expected to be arraigned today. The protesters are members of the Veterans for Peace group, authorities said.

A former chairman of the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination has been named chairman of the State Racing Commission. Walter Sullivan also worked as chief of the attorney general's Asset Forfeiture Unit, as an assistant district attorney for Plymouth and Middlesex counties, and led the Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission. The three-member Racing Commission supervises the state's horse and dog tracks. (AP)

A young man was seriously injured last night after he was involved in an incident with a car, according to the Middlesex district attorney's office. Officials said they could not provide details about how the man was hurt just before 8 p.m. on Lisbon Street near Route 60. Several television stations reported that the victim had been riding atop the vehicle when he was thrown to the ground. The man, who was not identified, was taken to a Boston hospital, the district attorney's office said.

Veterans are trying to find a camera taken Saturday containing hundreds of pictures of a ceremony honoring Captain Jennifer J. Harris, a Marine helicopter pilot from Swampscott who was the first Massachusetts woman killed in combat in Iraq. They want the camera or, at the very least, the memory card back. "No questions asked," said Jim Schultz, the town veterans agent who is also a Swampscott police detective. A ceremony dedicating the Marine Corps League post in Swampscott in Harris's name on Saturday was followed by a ball at the Franco-American Hall in Lynn. Schultz said the camera was stolen, probably by someone who wandered in off the street, from a table at about 11:45 p.m. Anyone with information is asked to call the Swampscott VFW post at 781-599-1240.

Despite a call by some student leaders for a two-day boycott, the administration at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst says it expects students to show up for class and expects graduate teaching assistants to teach classes as scheduled later this week. Some student leaders have called for a boycott to protest what they say is the administration's failure to address several student grievances, including student fees and campus police patrols in dormitories. University spokesman Ed Blaguszewski says reports of canceled classes will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. Senior administrators met with student leaders yesterday. Jeffrey Napolitano, president of the Graduate Student Senate, says students are encouraged to attend teach-ins and demonstrations instead of classes on Thursday and Friday. (AP)

Police in Lincoln announced yesterday the arrest of three suspects in a rash of home burglaries in town and discovered ties to many other crimes. Police from five communities raided a home in Lynn and found property stolen from residences in New Hampshire and across the North Shore and western suburbs, including an Oct. 30 burglary in Lincoln, authorities said. Julio Perez Sanchez, Rishelle Whitcomb, and Jamie Beaton,all of Lynn, were charged with receiving stolen property.