Central Iowa Man Shot By His Dog
How did you get shot? "My dog shot me." Those are four words police never expect to hear, but that's exactly what happened in Fort Dodge on Wednesday. Here's how it happened.
Remme, 51, of Fort Dodge has a permit to carry and has a Ruger 9 mm, with a safety. He tells the Fort Dodge Messenger, he and his pit bull-labrador mix dog, Balew, were just playing when the dog shot him:
I was lying on the couch, and we were horsing around, me and the dog. And I was tossing him off my lap, and he was jumping back on my lap.
And I carry in a belly band, under my bib overalls. And apparently he bumped the safety one time, and when he bounded back over one of his toes went right down into the trigger guard.
It has a trigger safety as well as a thumb safety, and he managed to hit both of them, and it discharged and went into my leg, did no major damage to anything.
Remme didn't realize he'd been shot until his pant leg began to turn purple. When he noticed that, it was time to call 911. He was taken to UnityPoint Health Trinity Regional Medical Center in Fort Dodge and was released yesterday afternoon. The bullet is still lodged in his leg, as he awaits a follow-up about possibly having it removed.
Even though he'd been shot, Remme was more concerned about his dog. He says Balew,
... is a big wuss. The poor dog laid down beside me and cried, because he thought he was in trouble for doing something wrong. He’s a pit lab mix. He’s afraid of the dark, he’s afraid of water.
This is at least the second time in the last six months that a person in Iowa has accidentally been shot by a dog. November 29, 2017, a man was shot while hunting in Wright County. On that occasion, a 36-year-old man sustained moderate injuries to his back after a hunting dog stepped on a shotgun that was on the ground. The gun fired, hitting the man in the back with shot pellets. The 36-year-old man was almost 22 feet from the gun when he was shot.
Be careful out there. You never know when your dog is holding a grudge.