This story has been bothering and puzzling me:

John West can't understand why Little Bit, his 5-year-old pit bull, is dead.

Last week, in a scenario disputed by West, a police officer fired at the dog on the 2500 block of South 72d Street, hitting the animal in the paw and wounding another officer when a bullet fragment ricocheted and grazed her arm.

The accounts given by police and West agree on one score: Little Bit, who was euthanized by the Philadelphia Animal Care and Control Association, did not bite or harm anyone.

It appears the dog would be alive today except for a pair of mistakes, both of which are under investigation.

What happened next is in dispute:

Police said that when the officers arrived, West was sitting on his stoop, and he stood up, opened the door and let out a pit bull and a rottweiler, both of which lunged at the officers.

But what's missing are the details about the arrival of the officers. The story does not say whether they had made their presence known and knocked on the door, or whether they just drove up at the same time the dogs were being let out. The dog's owner says he let the dogs out to put them in his truck and didn't know the officers were there:

He said he was in his house getting ready to take Little Bit and Rocko for a run in a park and did not know the officers were there. Outside, he had left the door of his Bronco open so the dogs could jump in.

"I opened the door and went, 'Get in the truck,' " he said. Then he said he saw the officers - a female near the stoop and a male about 15 feet down the street.

"He yelled, 'Get your dog, get your dog,' " West said. "He just started firing."

West said Little Bit had walked past the female officer and was headed toward the other officer, but she was not barking or acting menacing.

The officer, whose name has not been released, fired four times into the sidewalk, police said.

"He was a young guy. He had no control of his gun," West said. "It was so quick, the door was still open, because my rottweiler turned around and went right back in."

The pit bull also retreated, police said.

"My dog did nothing wrong," said West, who also suffered a graze wound to the arm and whose door has a bullet hole in it.

The police Internal Affairs unit is investigating the shooting.

And further, is there a different standard for the police than for other people?

I don't think anyone has to tolerate being attacked and bitten by a dog, but I've been around dogs all my life, and I've never had one just run up and start biting. There's almost always a threatening display of some sort, warning you to get back or else. Common sense suggests to me that even if the dog was acting aggressively, there must have been an interval allowing this officer to give the owner time to get his dog off the street and out of the way before he started shooting. It also strikes me that had this been an aggressive, vicious dog intent on attacking the officer, it would have continued the attack and bitten the officer who would have had to keep on firing until the dog was dead.

I'd like to hear from the neighbors about this dog, which looks quite gentle in the picture, and I'd also like to hear from the mailman. (They usually know the neighborhood dogs quite well.)

What bothers me the most about this is my suspicion that the dog might be a victim of anti-pit bull hysteria, and breed-based discrimination. Whoever that cop was, he might have read the usual trumped-up stories and have been in deathly fear of "pit bulls" before he ever showed up in front of that guy's house.

My suspicion seems confirmed by what happened later:

While police sorted out the situation with West at Southwest Detectives, West's niece contacted PACCA to say she planned to retrieve the dogs. When they arrived the next morning, they were told Little Bit had been euthanized.

Tara Derby, chief executive officer of PACCA, said the dog had lost two toes, suffered a shrapnel wound in the paw, and was in severe pain when it arrived at the facility.

She said the dog probably would have had to have its leg amputated, but acknowledged the animal should not have been euthanized without the consent of its owner, particularly because West's niece had contacted PACCA about recovering the pet.

Derby said the incident is under investigation and that any staff members who were responsible for the dog's death would be held accountable.

West said yesterday he would have borrowed the money to get Little Bit the medical care she needed.

"I had her for so long," he said. "I loved her."

It is uncontested that the police were mistaken in being there, the dog bit no one, yet bullets went flying, two people were wounded, and the dog is now dead.

Under Pennsyvania law, the officer might be liable unless the dog actually lunged at the officer in a threatening manner. I don't think merely running in the officer's direction constitutes lunging in a threatening manner, but again, I don't know what was going through the officer's mind. It worries me that there might be cops out there who would shoot a dog simply for being a pit bull.

No matter who is at fault, the story makes me sad -- especially the picture of Little Bit, which gives every appearance that she was just a plain old nice dog. A family pet, and a good dog, even. She may well have thought she was doing what was best for her home, and for that she was essentially tortured and made to suffer badly -- for reasons she did not understand.

Knowing no more than I know, I thought the poor dog deserved a blog post.