I Pepper Sprayed A Dog Attacking Me But Accidentally Got Some On The Owner.

Location: Illinois

I was a postal working about to make a delivery to their house and was coming from one side. A teenager came around the corner of the other side of the house walking a dog on a leash, not a particularly tall dog but a bit heftier, I think it might have been an american bully. As soon as it saw me it immediately yanked the leash right out of his hand and starting running towards me clearly acting aggressively. I had maybe two seconds to act, and my mind went to the last time I got bit which left me with years of constant pain and reduced function in that hand, then got grilled by management about why I didn't spray the dog. So as I'm backing up and the teen is scrambling for the leash, I'm trying to ready the dog spray they give us specifically for these situations, I think it uses about 0.35% capsicum. Right as it jumped up at me I sprayed it directly in the face and it quickly backed off without biting me.

The mother came out and they started yelling at me about how the dog is actually very friendly and that I was a dumbass for spraying it, and I called them dumbasses back for not controlling their dog. I walked a few houses down to call my supervisor, who told me to just keep going since I ended up not being bitten. I wasn't sure whether I was actually allowed to just leave, so I decided to call our local non-emergency police number just to be safe. As I'm on the phone with them the mother walked over and started yelling that some of the pepper spray got on her son, which had not been mentioned when I initially started walking. I was definitely only aiming at the dog, but it was a bit windy that day and some of it must have gotten blown onto him while he was going for the leash. She said he had a heart condition and that she needed an ambulance there immediately, so I let them know it was actually a medical emergency and they sent one out along with a couple cop cars. She also threated to send people after me to cause physical harm if anything happened to him, which I then mentioned on the phone but reassured them that I understood she was just upset and not likely to actually do anything. She made some strange seemingly unrelated comments about my body then walked back to their house.

The ambulance and police got there and I waited to be waved over by the mother since I wasn't sure whether I would make it worse by approaching them. The police took a report from me and pretty much told me that it sounded like I did what I was supposed to. I was very distraught about whether the teen was okay and just sat on the sidewalk while the police tried to reassure me he'd be fine. A few minutes later they let him out without having to take him to the hospital. The dad came out and we just sort of awkwardly apologized to each other. The police said it was time to get going, and I went back to the office to give them the report number then immediately quit. I started thinking about how they could be financially ruined by the situation and called the non-emergency number back to see if there was some way I could offer to pay for any medical expenses, but they told me it sounded like a civil matter now and that I should just drop it.

It's a couple days later and I'm coming around to the idea that I did what I was technically required to do and that the teen might really be okay, but I still feel awful about the whole situation. I keep thinking whether there's something I could've done differently and if it really would've been so bad to get bitten again. I'm also not sure what's going to happen legally. Is there anything that I could end up facing criminal charges or a lawsuit over? Did I essentially admit some sort of guilt by being concerned about him? How long until I'll know whether something's going to happen?