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Owners of a dog shot and killed by Prince George's County police Wednesday morning in a Landover neighborhood are angry about what they call the unnecessary killing of their family pet during the owners' struggle with police officers.

Less than 30 minutes before the dog was killed, one of the owners, Micah Barlow, 21, had fought back against would-be carjackers by shooting at them with a shotgun, he said. The report of shots fired drew police to the house in the 1100 block of Fiji Avenue.

As police were trying to get the scene under control, one officer shot and killed Barlow's dog, which county police spokesman Maj. Andrew Ellis said had charged at officers.

For the first time, the police department will apply the same level of scrutiny to a dog shooting as it does to the shooting of a person by an officer, by having the department's executive review board look over investigation findings, Ellis said.

"We do extend our heartfelt sympathies to the family. We understand how a pet can be a part of a family," Ellis said.

The shooting has shaken residents of the Highland Park neighborhood. Although residents say they try to maintain positive relationships with police through regular meetings and interactions, they said this incident will be difficult to patch up.

"This is not the area that you come into like it's a bad neighborhood. The police came in and treated them like criminals," said Patricia Smith, the aunt of brother's Micah and Sterling Barlow, who owned the dog. "I tried the last 21 to 24 years to teach these boys to be good stewards of the community. All my work was done in vain for that one night."

Barlow said he had just gotten home from work as an audio visual technician at 12:30 a.m. Wednesday and pulled into his driveway when two men approached his 1996 Crown Victoria with guns and asked for his keys.

Barlow said he gave them the keys and ran inside the house. Barlow then grabbed his shotgun and ran back out to confront the alleged carjackers, who after seeing the gun, went back to their own car. They drove off after firing several rounds at Barlow, striking only his car, he said.

Neighbors called police to report the shooting, and when police arrived to find a crowd of people gathered in the street, they had no knowledge of the attempted carjacking, Ellis said Thursday.

"The officers have to take control of the situation," Ellis said. "It's a chaotic situation. They are trying to control the situation and investigate the situation after that."

Barlow said he and his brother, Sterling Barlow, 24, who also lives in the house, were confused about why officers would order them on the ground with guns drawn when Micah was the victim of the carjacking.

"I didn't feel the need to get on the ground," said Micah Barlow, recalling the incident Thursday afternoon in his driveway.

Officers ordered the brothers and neighbors who had gathered to sit down, but struggled with Sterling Barlow, who Ellis said refused to cooperate.

As officers attempted to get Sterling Barlow on the ground, his 4-year-old dog, Mercedes, a Rottweiler and Labrador mix, had escaped the house through a door left open during the commotion, and the dog sat in the yard watching his owner struggle.

Both Micah Barlow and neighbor Duane Bellfield said the dog stayed inside the front yard and did not bark or act aggressively as she watched the officers try to get her owner to lie on the ground. Micah Barlow, who already was on the ground in the roadway, said he heard his brother ask a police officer not to shoot the dog just before it happened.

However, Ellis said Cpl. Rashawn Robinson, a 10-year veteran of the department, fired a single shot at the dog after it tried to charge the officers who were tussling with Sterling Barlow.

Sterling Barlow has since been charged with assaulting a police officer, failure to obey a lawful command and disorderly conduct, and police seized seven guns from his home, including an illegal sawed-off shotgun, Ellis said. Micah Barlow was not charged with a crime. Police are investigating the carjacking, but Ellis said he did not have any information about it.

Several high-profile dog shootings by law enforcement officers have occurred in the past two months in the region, including the shooting of a Rottweiler by Prince George's County sheriff's deputies who were conducting an eviction in a Forest Heights home in August.

Others include the shooting of a pit bull and Shar Pei mix in the middle of a festival in Washington, D.C., this month and the shooting by an off-duty federal officer of a Siberian husky at a dog park in Anne Arundel County.

Ellis could not confirm the last time a county police officer shot and killed a dog, but said it has been a long time.

The county police SWAT team, which Ellis said most often comes into contact with dogs in hostile situations, has experimented with multiple types of training to prevent dog shootings. Ellis was unsure what type of training, if any, patrol officers receive for handling dogs or using less-lethal force on them.