Vallejo police shot and injured a dog on Tuesday when they went to the wrong house to investigate a possible domestic argument, the dog’s owner and a police department spokesman said Thursday.

“I was in our side yard barbecuing with my boyfriend (Manny Trujillo) on Tuesday, with our two dogs — a pit bull terrier and a chihuahua, when all of a sudden, there were three cops in our yard and they shot our dog twice,” Vallejo native and Hogan High School graduate Samantha Melo said. “They came without identifying themselves.”

Saying the episode left her feeling violated, the 26-year-old dental assistant/instructor said that after rushing her dog to the emergency vet in Fairfield, she went to the Vallejo Police Department to voice her outrage.

“They had the wrong house,” she said. “The sergeant I spoke to said they were called to 933 Sacramento St. and we’re at (a different number on Sacramento).”

Lt. Kenny Park said the officers went to the address to which they were sent and realized there was no such place.

“The police report says the officers were sent to 932 Sacramento St. for a possible domestic violence situation and when they got there, and it was not the right address, they heard a male and a female screaming at (the other address) and went there,” he said. “There was no perimeter fence, and as officers approached, the dogs came around the corner.”

An earlier response to a request for comment from police suggested police were completely in the right, given the circumstances.

Said Lt. Sid DeJesus in an earlier email: “Officers responded to a report of two people arguing in the street. … (They) responded to where the disturbance was occurring with a lawful right to be at the location. This 70-plus pound pit bull charged one of our officers, who was forced to discharge her duty weapon, striking the dog twice. The officers were at the correct location.

“The involved officer was not in a position to retreat and was left with no options. In fear of her being attacked and severely injured and in defense of the two other officers present, she took the most appropriate action possible.”

Park said DeJesus meant the officers had originally gone to the address to which they’d been dispatched, not that they wound up at the correct location.

One of the officers tried to deploy his Taser, but it didn’t work, Park said.

“The dog charged the officers, growling and baring its teeth, so the officer discharged her weapon twice,” he said. “These things unfold very quickly.”

Officers are not required to try each of their less lethal options before firing their guns, since split-second decisions are often needed in dangerous situations, he said.

“I don’t think the officer had a choice,” Park said. “Believe me, we don’t like shooting dogs or causing grief to family members. Obviously, we didn’t do this intentionally.”

Saying it was likely “an honest mistake” that officers thought the loud voices they heard very near the address they were sent to, could be where the domestic situation may have been unfolding.

“There are no signs indicating there’s a dog,” he said. “The dogs came out of nowhere.”

Melo said it was the officers that came out of nowhere.

“I feel violated,” she said. “I want people to know this can happen to you, that the police here shoot first and ask questions later. I want people to know that they can be barbecuing and having a nice day and it suddenly turns black. This is our community, and this is what’s happening.”

Melo said she was told by police after the fact, that her dogs should have been on a leash.

“Who puts their dog on a leash in their own yard?” she said.

She said Trujillo, 25, and a welder on Mare Island, feared for his own life as he saw officers aiming at the dog and he ran to protect it, shouting, “No!”

Melo said she and Trujillo have never been cited for having an aggressive dog. She said she wonders why the Vallejo police arm their officers with non-functioning Tasers and why the body cams each has on his/her uniform were not turned on.

Park said the Taser situation is being looked into and that officers typically do announce themselves when they enter a non-public area, precisely to avoid misunderstandings. So, these officers likely did that, but, maybe weren’t heard by Melo and her boyfriend, he said.

As for body cams, officers are instructed to activate those when they think the possibility exists of capturing evidentiary footage. But, when the split-second choice seems to the officers to be between protecting their safety or turning on the cameras, the cameras lose.

“We apologized to them about their dog, and told them to fill out a claim (for the city to possibly pay the dog’s medical bills,)” Park said.

But, the issue may be larger than that for Melo and Trujillo.

“This is our home, but, now I’m wondering if we should think about moving,” she said. “We live in a world where you don’t know who you can trust. It’s not fair.”

Contact Rachel Raskin-Zrihen at (707) 553-6824.