A report of a lion roaming around a Milwaukee neighborhood has kept police on the lookout and residents on edge.
According to Fox6 News, a man fired a shot at something he saw moving Tuesday night. The man thought he hit the lion, but instead hit a pit bull and fractured a bone in its leg, according to the station.
The incident took place in a neighborhood northwest of downtown at around 6:30 p.m. The man reported his sighting to police. Milwaukee Area Domestic Animal Control Executive Director Karen Sparapani admitted that the reports have gotten people a little fired up.
“Obviously the person who shot this thought they shot a lion,” she told the station. “People tend to be amped up or afraid.”
Milwaukee police say a woman reported seeing a lion Monday afternoon in her north side neighborhood. Police Chief Edward Flynn says his officers were given cellphone video of a large animal that appeared to be a “lion-ish creature.”
When the officers checked out the neighborhood, they didn’t find anything. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources was notified and dispatched an employee to check out the claim. Flynn says it was “theoretically possible” a wild cat has made its way south from northern Wisconsin.
A Milwaukee Police Department spokesman told Fox6 News that each time a call is received, officers go out to investigate. However, neither investigation has yielded a lion.
Animal control officials say they are ready with tranquilizer guns if a big cat is found.
Click for more from Fox6 News.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The hottest stories ripped from the headlines, from crime to courts, legal and scandal.
