A new video emerged Thursday that shows police shoot a pit bull shot in the head in the East Village on Monday.
The graphic footage, posted to the Gothamist website, shows two uniformed cops approaching the dog’s owner as he appeared to be suffering a seizure on E. 14th St. near Second Ave.
The barking dog, Star, keeps the officers at bay before he suddenly lunges off camera toward a bystander that stepped too close to his owner, a homeless man named Lech Stankiewicz, witnesses told the website.
As the two cops move in toward Stankiewicz, the dog sprints for one cop — who quickly draws his gun and fires one shot into Star’s head.
“It’s a tragedy, but I may have done the same thing that the cop did,” Johnny Rodriguez, who shot the video, told the website.
“If you got a pit bull coming at you, I don’t know if you stand there and get bit or use your gun.”
The video shows Star wiggling from spasms in the street as horrified onlookers yell at the cop who fired.
The wounded pooch was taken to an Animal Care & Control shelter on E. 110th St. in critical condition.
An agency spokesman said that Star was still in serious condition, but showing “signs of slight improvement.”
Stankiewicz — who sources said was intoxicated — was taken to Bellevue Hospital and treated for minor injuries. He was later cuffed on an arrest warrant for an open container summons, cops.
His sister said Stankiewicz, who was born in Poland, left the family’s Illinois home about a decade ago due to a drug problem.
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The barking dog, Star, keeps the officers at bay before he suddenly lunges off camera toward a bystander that stepped too close to his owner, a homeless man named Lech Stankiewicz, witnesses told the website.
As the two cops move in toward Stankiewicz, the dog sprints for one cop — who quickly draws his gun and fires one shot into Star’s head.
“It’s a tragedy, but I may have done the same thing that the cop did,” Johnny Rodriguez, who shot the video, told the website.
“If you got a pit bull coming at you, I don’t know if you stand there and get bit or use your gun.”
The video shows Star wiggling from spasms in the street as horrified onlookers yell at the cop who fired.
The wounded pooch was taken to an Animal Care & Control shelter on E. 110th St. in critical condition.
An agency spokesman said that Star was still in serious condition, but showing “signs of slight improvement.”
Stankiewicz — who sources said was intoxicated — was taken to Bellevue Hospital and treated for minor injuries. He was later cuffed on an arrest warrant for an open container summons, cops.
His sister said Stankiewicz, who was born in Poland, left the family’s Illinois home about a decade ago due to a drug problem.
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