Why did Detroit police shoot Millie the dog in Corktown?

Local musician Alison Lewis said a weekend trip with her dog, Millie, to play at the old Tiger Stadium site turned into a nightmare when a Detroit police officer shot Millie in the face during what she considered to be a nonthreatening interaction.

Detroit police characterized Millie as an unleashed pit bull who was growling and jumping at the officer who shot the dog.

Lewis, who often performs with Millie onstage, said she and a couple friends went to the field at Michigan Avenue and Trumbull Avenue on Sunday evening to let their dogs run around.

The field was familiar to them — Lewis said before she moved out of the Corktown neighborhood about a year ago, she took Millie there three or four times a week. Lewis described Millie, more than six years old, as a cattle-dog-mix, not a pit bull.

About the same time Lewis arrived at the field on Sunday, a couple of other people were nearby loading equipment from a just-finished baseball game into their cars parked on the grass. The parked cars drew the attention of Detroit police. A squad car pulled up and two officers got out. Lewis and police agree on this much of the story.

As the officers approached, Lewis said her two friends put their dog on a leash. As Lewis reached for her purse and leash, Millie, who was unleashed and about 15 feet away, started to "gallop" toward one of the officers, she said.

"He went for his gun. It was about as long as I had to say, 'What are you doing? Please don't do that. She's not going to hurt you,'" Lewis said in an interview on Tuesday. "It was: Hand on gun. It was out. Boom."

After the shot, Millie bolted away. Lewis said at first she thought the cop shot into the ground, just scaring the dog. But when she caught up with Millie, she was bleeding heavily. She rushed Millie to a animal care facility and the dog went into surgery. Millie has been released and is recovering, although she is having a hard time breathing and will need to be re-evaluated, Lewis said.

"He shot her in the face. It went through her front lip on her right side, entered there and lodged in her jaw on the other side," Lewis said. "It tore out the whole top palate of her mouth, a bunch of teeth."

Lewis' friend, Jeffery St. John, was with her at the park on Sunday.

St. John, who works with Lewis at St. CeCe's pub in Corktown, said Millie barked at a few kids at the field before the cops arrived. But as Millie came up to them, barking, one of the kids bent over and started petting her.

He said Millie was barking at the officer, but she was not jumping at him.

"She was barking at him. But she was doing the dog (greeting), 'Hey what's up? Who is this,'" St. John said. "It happened really fast."

St. John said Millie is at St. CeCe's occasionally and has not had any problems. "She's just barky sometimes," he said.

Detroit police describe Millie as more threatening. Millie is referred to as a pit bull terrier in the officers' report of the incident.

Detroit police spokeswoman June West, reading from the report, said, "the pit bull came at them growling and jumping at the officer. He drew his weapon."

"When a dog is charging and growling, it poses a threat," West added. "Dogs can be very dangerous."

Detroit's city code says dogs in public places must be on leashes.

West said she did not know if the incident would be investigated further. She also did not know if the officer also was armed with less lethal weapons, such as a baton.

Lewis said she plans to file a complaint with the city. She said she has concerns about how a cop with such an itchy trigger finger would react in other situations.

"It's not just what happened to my dog. The way I see it, were in a public space in the daylight," Lewis said. "This is how we are handling it? It's like a concern for the community. It's completely out of control.

"Someone who is that afraid in that situation should not have the power of a gun," she said. "I want this guy — at least his gun taken away."

Millie has no history of attacking or biting people, Lewis said.

Bill Goodman, Lewis' lawyer, said he has never heard of Detroit police shooting a dog in such circumstances. During house raids, police sometimes "pacify" animals, he said. But the shooting of Millie showed a lack of training, supervision and discipline, he said. A civil suit against the city is on the table, he said.

"The willingness and readiness to resort to deadly force is not only regrettable, it's dangerous," Goodman said.

Lewis plays around the Detroit area with the band String of Ponies, whose 2011 album, "Hurricane Millie," is named after the dog and features her on the album cover art. The Detroit Metro Times named Millie "Best Onstage Dog" in its best of Detroit awards last year.

"When Lewis gets up, Millie will either howl along or she'll get onstage herself and lie down. There's something incredibly cool about something that relaxed," the alternative-weekly wrote.

Contact Joe Guillen: 313-222-6678 or jguillen@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @joeguillen.