CHICAGO (FOX 32 News) – A North Side family is furious over what they claim was an unjustified police shooting of their 7-month-old miniature bull terrier, Colonel Phillips, known to the neighborhood as “The Colonel.”…But on Saturday afternoon, the Colonel became a target himself.

He was shot by a Chicago Police officer in front of his owner’s gated, North Side home.

Police were writing a parking ticket for a van belonging to Al Phillips, so Phillips came out to move the vehicle.

“My little bull terrier followed me out,” Phillips explains. “Then, all I hear is boom! Boom! Two shots. You shot the dog!”

…While FOX 32’s Larry Yellen was interviewing the dog’s owners, two police officers drove by the home.

90 minutes later, they came back, asked why Phillips why he had contacted the media and gave him a ticket for not keeping Colonel on a leash.

“They were giving us a ticket, three days after the fact,” says Phillips. “So I think they’re probably trying to cover their rear ends.”

…They also say that after shooting the dog, the officer put his gun back in his holster, and calmly finished writing the ticket for their van.