A D.C. police officer shot a dog in a gated community of Foxhall Crescents in D.C. Tuesday afternoon after it menaced the officer and a contractor, police said.

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Police said the officer was taking a report from another neighbor whose car was hit by trash truck when the officer saw an aggressive dog approaching a contractor on the side of the contractor's truck.

The dog, a Chocolate Lab named Russell, left when the officer approached, police said, but returned as the officer and contractor were talking. The dog displayed an "aggressive posture" and the officer shot the dog, police said.

"The policeman shot him because the dog did seem to be coming at him pretty fast," said one man, Alan Savada, citing an eyewitness' account.

Alika Robb says he was working on a neighbor's roof when he heard two gunshots.

"The lady -- getting hysterical -- just screamed, 'They shot my dog, they shot my dog.' So I ran down my ladder to go see what was going on," Robb recalled.

The owner took Russell to Friendship Hospital for Animals for treatment.

Ljubica Acevska, a neighbor, described the dog's owner as"very flustered, very distraught."

The dog is expected to survive.

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