A police dog was mauled after a violent home invasion that saw a 10-year-old boy get shot in the shoulder as his dad threw a paint tin at intruders.
Young German Shepherd PD Cozza was injured as police raced to a house at Browns Plains, south of Brisbane, on Tuesday night.
The black sniffer dog, who only graduated in November, was bitten by other dogs at the Logan property as he tried to track down the Boxing Day home invaders.
A gun had been fired moments after the boy’s father had thrown a paint tin at them, leading to a struggle that saw him manage to steal their firearm.
PD Cozza graduating in November with Police Commissioner Ian Stewart (left) and his master Dave Ray (right)
Detective Inspector Tod Reid said dogs belonging to a 31-year-old man, who was at home with his son, engaged in a ‘violent struggle’ with PD Cozza during the job shortly after 8pm.
‘The senior constable officer was able to rescue his dog showing great restraint in the process,’ he told reporters on Wednesday.
‘Unfortunately the police dog was injured by the victim’s dogs with a bite to its hind quarter and it had to go to the vet last night.’
PD Cozza’s torn leg muscle injury wasn’t life threatening and he is expected to make a full recovery.
The four-legged member of the Queensland Police Service wasn’t the only casualty as a gun was fired during the home invasion.
The boy and his dad were inside an Ammons Street house when two masked men entered the property shortly before 8pm, armed with a machete and a firearm.
Detective Inspector Tod Reid described the home invasion south of Brisbane as ‘abhorrent’
Detective Inspector Reid said a fight had broken out when the father of the boy had gone outside to investigate why his dogs were barking.
A gun was fired, injuring the boy’s shoulder, after the boy’s dad threw a can of paint at the intruders.
‘This is an abhorrent crime,’ Detective Inspector Reid said.
‘We want to solve it but we need your help.’
The detective said the boy ran inside and hid under his bed after being shot, as his father fought the two home invaders, who later jumped over back fence.
A 10-year-old boy was shot in the shoulder after his father threw a paint tin during an invasion at this Browns Plains home south of Brisbane
He was able to grab their gun and may have hit the attackers with it, leaving them with facial injuries.
The trauma of the home invasion was likely to ‘resonate’ with the young boy for the rest of his life, the detective said.
The boy was taken to Brisbane’s Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital with a gunshot wound to the shoulder, with the shrapnel removed on Wednesday morning.
His father meanwhile suffered cuts to his abdomen, requiring stitches during his treatment at Princess Alexandra Hospital.
The child’s mother was also at home at the time.
A police dog was mauled by other pooches as officers responded to a home invasion call
The boy was taken to Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital to have surgery to remove shrapnel