Police officer wounds 4-year-old girl while trying to shoot her dog

A police officer in Ohio was trying to shoot a family dog that was charging toward him, but missed and hit a 4-year-old girl instead, the Columbus Dispatch reports.

The little girl, identified as Ava Ellis, was hit in the right leg on Friday and taken to Children's Hospital, where she is expected to make a full recovery, the paper reports. The officer, who was not named, was following up on a hit-and-run case when he was flagged down by a woman who said her sister had cut herself.

"He went to see what was going on, and when he got close to the doorway, a dog charged at him," police spokeswoman Denise Alex-Bouzounis told the Columbus Dispatch. "He fired a shot to hold the dog back, missed the dog and accidentally struck the 4 year old in the leg."

The incident happened in Whitehall, a small city just outside Columbus.

The woman he went to check on, Andrea Ellis, was taken to the hospital as well for the cut.

Neighbors told the Dispatch the family owns two dogs that can't get out of the house because they wear shock collars.

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