Updated 07/09/2009 06:34 PM
Dog Owner, Five Others Arrested In Wake Of UES Shooting
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A pit bull owner and five other people were arrested after police found drugs and were allegedly attacked by the dog at a Upper East Side apartment.
The six face charges of possession of a controlled substance after police said they found crack residue in a crack pipe.
Milagros Martinez, 42, was arrested last night. Charges are pending.
Police responded to a call Wednesday night at the Isaac Houses at 94th Street and First Avenue.
Authorities said while police waited for the door to open, the people inside tried to get rid of the drugs.
Investigators also said once the door was open, Milagros Martinez, 42, sicced her pit bull on the police in the building's narrow hallway.
Officers opened fire on the dog, killing it.
Three of the officers were hit by bullet fragments or pieces of the concrete walls. The most seriously injured officer was hit under the eye. None of the injuries are life-threatening.
Martinez was hit in the hand.
No weapon was found in the apartment.
Residents say it was a chaotic scene.
"We were home and then we heard really loud shots. We thought it was fireworks and I'm like, it's been past July 4th why are there fireworks going on?" said a local resident. "And then the cops came and the helicopters and stuff and we all came running out because this has never happened before."
"What you gonna do? Let the cop get bitten? Not shoot the dog?" said resident Charlie Hinckley.
Many also said they had complained to the New York City Housing Authority about the dog in the past. But officials say they have no record of when or how those complaints were made.
"Something was going to happen, because this woman used to invite all kinds of conflict inside the apartment," said neighbor Franklin Ramos. "They complained about this dog, too. It was vicious."
"I'm afraid of that dog," said fellow neighbor Jose Moncayo.
NYCHA banned pit bulls, rottweilers and Doberman pinschers, full or mixed breeds, in all of its apartments, beginning this past May.
A NYCHA spokesman said officials were preparing to charge the owners with living in public housing without a registered dog. The spokesman would not say how long officials knew the dog lived there.