Fort Worth man says he shot neighbor’s dog in self-defense ‘to stop the threat’
Fort Worth police are investigating the shooting death of a dog who escaped from his owner’s yard, officials said.
The incident occurred Saturday, Oct. 5, in north Fort Worth, near Haslet. The man who shot the dog reported that the animal was behaving aggressively toward him, police said.
The shooting has garnered outrage online, with some social media posts alleging the shooter chased, cornered and gunned down the pit bull in his own yard.
The man, who asked to remain anonymous out of concern for his safety, told the Star-Telegram in a phone interview that the incident didn’t take place the way it’s being portrayed on social media. He said that he and his family have received death threats over the shooting.
“(I was) trying to help (another) dog,” he said. “That’s what got me in all this trouble.”
Earlier in the day, the man said, he saw a Yorkshire Terrier cross his yard. One of his neighbors owns Yorkies, and the man assumed it belonged to him. He followed the dog with the intention of making sure it got returned safely to his owner, he said.
At one point, the Yorkie got out into a four-lane road, according to the man’s account. He said he had to crawl through a fence to get to the little dog and pull it out of harm’s way. The Yorkie turned a corner onto another street, and that’s where the pit bull was, he said.
The man said he thought the pit bull, who was loose, looked aggressive. He headed back to his house and told his neighbor he might have seen one of his Yorkies. He also told the neighbor he didn’t want to go back to that area because of the pit bull, but the neighbor insisted, he said. The man said he retrieved his handgun for protection, and the two headed around the corner in search of the Yorkie.
They did find the Yorkie, the man said, but it wasn’t his neighbor’s. They also saw the pit bull, who was about two houses away from where they were at the time.
“As soon as we noticed it (the Yorkie) wasn’t his, we were charged by this pit bull,” the man said.
The dog was “extremely aggressive,” according to the man. He was “barking, growling, biting toward our feet.”
The two men, who were standing on the public sidewalk, tried to back away from the dog, he said. The animal was “relentless,” the man said, and close enough to attack them. Firing his weapon wasn’t his first response, according to the man. He said that he and his neighbor were just trying to get away.
“I unfortunately had to stop the threat,” the man told the Star-Telegram.
After he shot the pit bull, the dog ran back into his yard and that is where he died, the man said.
Killing or causing serious bodily injury to a non-livestock animal, such as a dog, without the owner’s consent can be a third-degree felony in Texas. It’s punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The law does allow you to kill a dog in self-defense if it poses a threat to you or your family.
Mitch Monthie, a criminal defense attorney with Varghese Summersett, told the Star-Telegram in a July phone interview that the self-defense part of the law tends to be a gray area. It requires that the defendant prove their actions were reasonable and necessary. In a court setting, people often disagree about what constitutes reasonable and necessary, Monthie said.
Witnesses give a different account of shooting
In the case of the pit bull, two women who say they saw the shooting give a different account of what took place Saturday evening.
Both witnesses, who asked to remain anonymous out of concern for their safety, said they were in the area for around three hours. According to them, they never saw the Yorkie that the man said he saw.
What they did see was a pit bull and two Schnauzers who had gotten out of their yard and were running loose. One of the women, who runs a pit bull rescue, saw the dogs while she was on her way to the pharmacy. She pulled over and called her friend to help her catch them so she could return them to their owner, she told the Star-Telegram in a phone interview.
The dogs proved to be hard to catch, and the women ended up calling Animal Control to help. They said the pit bull was barking, but they felt he was trying to protect the two little dogs with him and his territory. They never felt afraid of him or thought he was going to harm them, they said.
While they waited for Animal Control, the women stationed themselves at opposite ends of the area where the dogs were running around to encourage pedestrians to go another way. They said they were concerned children might try to run up to the dogs or someone might be frightened of them.
One of the women said she saw a man walk straight up to the fence where the dogs had escaped from and look through the hole. The pit bull saw the man on his property and went running up to him while barking, the witness said, but never got closer than around 4 feet. The man turned and walked away, she said.
About 15 minutes later, the man returned, the women said. This time he had another man with him and a handgun. According to the women, the man said, “Where’s the dog? I’m going to take care of this today.”
The women told the man that Animal Control was on the way, and the situation was under control, they said. They said the man didn’t seem to care. The pit bull was going back and forth and marking the yards near his house. When he saw the man near his property he ran toward him barking, the witnesses said.
According to the women, the man was never in any danger. They said they were screaming and crying and telling the man not to shoot the pit bull, but he did. The women believe he shot the dog at least three times.
“(It was) the most ridiculous, terrifying thing I have seen in my life,” one of the women told the Star-Telegram.
According to the women, the two men walked away smirking after the shooting. One of the women called the neighborhood police officer and 911 to report that a dog had been shot.
Family says Buster was a ‘good boy’
The Star-Telegram has reached out to the owners of the pit bull, but they were not immediately available for comment.
The owner told KXAS-TV that he and his family were not at home when the shooting occurred. He said Buster was a “good boy” who loved belly rubs. Saturday was the first time he’d escaped from his back yard, the pet owner said.
The family returned home from a soccer game Saturday evening to find police and Animal Control outside their house.
“When I exited the car, they asked if I owned the dog, and I said yes, and then they told me my dog was murdered,” Buster’s owner said to KXAS.
He said his kids are tormented over their pet’s death every day, and don’t understand why it happened. The family plans to hold a memorial for Buster soon.
A neighbor, Cory Dawson, told KXAS that he saw Buster and another dog the day of the shooting. Dawson had just pulled into his garage and set his infant daughter’s car seat on the ground.
“I looked behind and a pit bull and another little dog were running up on us,” Dawson told KXAS. “So I hurried and grabbed my 2-week-old daughter and we kind of separated ourselves.”
According to Dawson, the dogs didn’t seem to be really aggressive, but they were barking and he didn’t want to take chances. He told KXAS that he didn’t know whether Buster had been aggressive with anyone else.
Detectives from the Animal Cruelty Unit are still investigating the incident, a Fort Worth Police Department spokesperson said. No criminal charges have been filed.
Staff writer Brayden Garcia contributed to this report.
This story was originally published October 10, 2024 at 3:55 PM.
