The link below is to an article written by someone employed by the Associated Press (AP). The AP presumably employs journalists, i.e persons who can be expected to be reasonably conversant with the English language and the rules governing its use. The article reports the death by shooting of a beloved pet dog by a drunken neighbor who incorrectly identified the dog as the source of protracted and annoying barking.. The aggrieved co-owners of the dog are Cary Chunyk and Loyce Andrews. The man identified as the shooter is a banking executive named David William Latham.
The article, achieving a new low point in the abuse of the Mother Tongue, reports THIS:
"After shooting Molly in the chest, Chunyk yelled at the shooter, but retreated when Latham raised both of his arms with one hand still holding a rifle."
Good grief!! Where is any professionalism in that abortion of a sentence? The writer--with concurrence of any editors or proofreaders that might have been involved--is telling us that the dog owner shot his own dog, but that, there was some other person who is the "shooter." This makes absolutely no sense and is an affront to the profession to which the involved AP staffers presumably attach themselves. Of the dangling of participles within the popular media, there is no shortage, but this one is supremely ludicrous!