HERALD-STANDARD (Uniontown, Pennsylvania) 01 December 06 Cops TASER python (Josh Krysak)
When police officers go to work they are often thrust into unexpected situations and are trained to expect anything while on duty.
Wednesday night it was Uniontown Patrolman Ray Miller's turn to try and handle a situation not often planned for when he and two other Uniontown officers battled a Burmese python at an area home.
Miller said when he and Sgt. Wayne Brown and Patrolman Eric Hanula responded to the home at 413 Morgantown Street around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, they found Steve Crilly, 47, of Uniontown, kneeling on the basement floor of the home with the eight-foot albino snake wrapped around his left arm.
Miller said Crilly's left hand was inside the snake's mouth.
Police said blood was running down Crilly's arm and hand and pooling on the floor.
"The snake was on his arm and was eating his hand," Miller said. "The family said they had tried to pull the snake off of Crilly to no avail.
Miller said after talking with family members, he decided to deploy his TASER on the massive reptile.
Once the snake was shot, the TASER caused the muscles to go slack and Crilly was released from the serpent's death grip.
The snake was placed back in its box and Uniontown Fire Department Ambulance personnel treated Crilly at the scene for his injuries, police said.
He had a nasty cut on his hand," Miller said of Crilly's injury.
Miller said while he had never used a TASER on an animal before, another officer on the Uniontown force had. He said the snake reacted exactly like a human when shot with the TASER, immediately releasing it's hold on Crilly.
The snake belonged to Crilly's daughter and Miller said he was trying to feed it a rat when it latched onto his arm.
"He was very calm considering there was a good bit of blood," Miller said.
As for Miller, it was just another night on patrol.
"Snakes don't bother me," Miller said.
Burmese pythons, native to Southeast Asia, are a common snake kept as pets in the United States, according exoticpets.com, and are normally docile creatures that range in size from 15 to 20 feet in length and weighing about 200 pounds when fully grown.
Crilly could not be reached for comment Thursday.
Cops TASER python

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