Assault suspect fatally shot after stabbing Concord police dog with pruning shears

A man was shot to death by two Concord officers this week after he attacked another man with a hatchet and then stabbed a police dog with pruning shears, officials said.

The man killed by officers was identified Wednesday as Dominick Musulman, 30, of Antioch, said Cpl. Christopher Blakely, a spokesman for the Concord Police Department. He died at a hospital Tuesday.

“It’s unfortunate what happened, and whenever someone’s life is lost,” Blakely said.

The shooting occurred about 2 p.m. Tuesday after two police officers responded to a report of an assault with a deadly weapon in a residential neighborhood on Crawford Street, police said.

When officers arrived, they found a bloodied man with severe wounds. He’d been attacked with a hatchet, and three of his fingers had been nearly cut off, Blakely said.

Shortly after officers found the victim, they received reports of a shirtless man running through backyards.

Officers searched the neighborhood and found the man hiding in a shed in the backyard of a home in the 1400 block of San Jose Avenue. When he emerged from the shed, he was armed with a pair of large gardening shears, Blakely said.

Musulman attacked a police dog named Jelle with the pruning shears, stabbing Jelle in the face and beating the dog with the shears, police said.

The wounded canine was unable to control him.

After attacking the dog, Musulman, who was still holding the shears, advanced toward officers, who opened fire, Blakely said. .

The man wounded in the hatchet attack was taken to a hospital, Blakely said. He is expected to survive. That man and Musulman’s brother were roommates and lived at the home on Crawford Street.

Jelle is being heavily medicated and is recovering from his injuries at home, Blakely said.

Blakely said toxicology tests will determine whether Mussulman was using drugs.

The department does not have body cameras. The officers involved in the shooting have been with the department for more than 15 years and working as training officers.

veronica.rocha@latimes.com

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