Boston police targeted a “vicious dog” with gunfire and multiple Tasers Thursday morning outside the Boston Public Library main branch on Boylston Street, which is also near the finish line for the Boston Marathon.
One officer fired his service weapon at the animal and several Taser rounds were also discharged at the dog, which ran away from the scene and was later located at Downtown Crossing, said Officer Mark Marron, a department spokesman.
The condition of the dog was not immediately available at 9:58 a.m., Marron said.
“The officer did fire at a vicious dog,” Marron said in a telephone interview. ”There were multiple taser deployments.”
The incident began when a woman with a dog allegedly started harassing staffers at the library, according to police transmissions recorded by Broadcastify. Police were told the dog was a pit bull.
An officer at the scene reported that the animal was off its leash and was acting aggressively. An officer fired one round at the dog.
“No one was hit,” an officer at the scene reported, per the recording. “It’s unclear whether the dog was struck or not.”
Unleashed, the dog raced through the streets of Boston, up Boylston and Newbury streets and onto the Common where the animal was pursued by officers on foot, according to the transmissions.
“The pit bull is on the loose there,” a dispatcher said. ”It’s unknown if the dog was struck.”
Officers tracked the animal to Franklin and Pearl streets Downtown where the dog was secured in the rear of a police cruiser until animal control could arrive, an officer at the scene said.
The incident is ongoing and remains under investigation, he said.
There are no injuries to bystanders or police, he said.
No further information is currently available.
This is a developing story.
John R. Ellement can be reached at john.ellement@globe.com. Follow him @JREbosglobe.
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