A Metropolitan Police Department officer shot and wounded a Chocolate Lab named Russell Tuesday afternoon while taking a report on the scene of a traffic accident inside the Foxhall Crescents gated community in Northwest. The dog is expected to survive after receiving treatment at the Friendship Hospital for Animals on Brandywine Street NW.

According to reports, the officer was investigating the scene of a accident inside the community when he saw the animal take an “aggressive posture” and shot it. Witnesses to the shooting told TBD that the dog “did seem to be coming at him pretty fast,” and the officer fired two rounds at the animal.

Here’s the official police statement on the incident:

On Tuesday, February 15, 2011 at approximately 12:30 pm, a member of the Second District was in the 4500 block of Foxhall Crescent, NW investigating an accident, when reportedly during this time, an unleashed dog approached the MPD member and a citizen on the scene in an aggressive manner. The officer then discharged his service weapon at the dog with rounds taking affect. The Metropolitan Police Department’s Force Investigations Branch is handling this investigation. The dog has been treated at a local animal hospital.

Obviously, D.C. police’s handling of animals has been under heavy scrutiny since an officer shot and killed a dog during last year’s Adams Morgan Day festival. In defending police interactions with animals last September, MPD Chief Cathy Lanier said that “99 percent of the time, when an officer uses force against a dog…we’re in an unusual situation.” One wonders if the investigation into this weapon discharge will prove whether the “unusual situation” threshold was crossed.