opinion

Bangert: No charges after scared homeowner shot ‘wonderful dog’ in Lafayette subdivision

LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Pat Harrington said he needed to see for himself the dog veterinarians dubbed Red.

So in late March, the Tippecanoe County prosecutor and two others from his staff went to Crystal Creek Kennels, a place where many of the county’s strays wind up near Battle Ground, to see which version of the medium-sized pit bull he’d get: the sweet, slightly obnoxious juvenile anxious to play, or the snarling, attacking dog a scared homeowner just east of Lafayette felt compelled to shoot at the end of his driveway weeks earlier.

The verdict?

“Wonderful dog,” Harrington said of the 45 minutes spent tossing balls in a game Red wasn’t about to quit on his own, despite an extensive series of stiches in his ear and in two spots on a back shaved for surgery to remove a .38-caliber slug.

“We really had a good time,” Harrington said. “Now, that doesn’t mean that dogs act that way 100 percent of the time.”

And it doesn’t change Indiana law, which states that killing a domestic animal is a felony but allows a defense against prosecution if the person “reasonably believes the conduct was necessary to prevent injury to the accused person or another person,” as well as to protect property or to keep a seriously injured animal from prolonged suffering.

After an investigation that lasted more than a month, Harrington concluded this week that he didn’t have enough evidence from police reports filed by the Tippecanoe County Sheriff’s Office or his own investigation to doubt the account of a 37-year-old father who feared so much for himself and his 5-year-old daughter that day in the Lexington Farms subdivision that he fired a round from a Smith and Wesson revolver through Red’s ear and into the dog’s back.

“There’s nothing to prosecute,” Harrington said, “because the state law gives him a defense.”

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The man who fired couldn’t be reached immediately for comment. (The J&C hasn’t named him because he hasn’t been charged with a crime.)

Jessica Smith, who helped find Red a new home in suburban Indianapolis, said she figured that would be the answer. The founder of PawSwap of Greater Lafayette, a nonprofit rescue operation that finds new homes for stray dogs and other pets, has been critical of police investigations into dogs being shot with no consequences. This case – which blew up in the media, of the conventional and social type – was no exception, as she lobbied for close scrutiny of what happened in a suburban block on a school morning.

Still, Smith admitted, Red’s case offered enough gray area to make it a tough case to prosecute.

“So, this really isn’t a surprise, I guess,” Smith said Friday afternoon. “It’s one person’s word against a dog that can’t talk. ... If the dog was dead, it wouldn’t have even gone this far. But he’s not dead. And everyone can see what kind of boy he is.”

Police reports obtained by the J&C tell a story with a lot of moving parts.

The 1-year-old dog, named Brock at the time, showed up in Lexington Farms in early March, via a series of handoffs that started with an owner in Frankfort and included a free listing on Facebook. Police accounted for at least three owners, including a 13-year-old girl. (The police investigation included trying to sort out who was the rightful owner March 5, when he started roaming the neighborhood the night before he was shot, to determine who was on the hook for veterinarian bills at Wildcat Valley Animal Clinic.)

The homeowner, carrying packages to his car before loading his daughter to take her to pre-school, told police he found the dog at the edge of his driveway, eating chicken from the trash, just before 7 a.m. March 6. He told police no one else was on Bluegrass Drive – buses for Harrison High School had left a stop nearby 14 minutes earlier, and ones for Wyandotte Elementary and East Tipp Middle School would come more than an hour later. Though, he told police, he wished someone had been there to see what had happened so they could back him up.

The man told police he had been bitten in the face by a Doberman pinscher when he was younger. The initial police report said he “seemed to have a fear of dogs.” That morning and in follow-up police interviews conducted as recently as April 8, the man said the dog barked, growled and made what he told police were “I’m gonna get you noises.”

He told police he went back to his house to get his gun, which he was permitted to carry, but realized it was in his car. He retrieved the gun from the car, but he told police he was afraid to stay in the car to wait out a dog with no collar, for fear that his daughter would take that as a signal that she should come outside to load into the car.

He told police he finally tried to scare the dog by yelling loudly and waving his arms. He told police that’s when the dog charged, “growling with teeth exposed.” He told police, “I have no doubt in my mind he was coming to get me.” He said he didn’t think he could have made it from his car back to the house.

He fired one shot. Then he called 911, as the dog ran down the street and into nearby woods.

The dog was found later at a house a few blocks away.

The initial report by a sheriff’s deputy, filed that day, concluded: "I do not believe (he) acted with malicious intent to kill the dog, but more likely shot at it to protect himself.”

In a follow-up interview, police asked whether he had been harassed by neighbors because of what had happened. He told police he had not, even though Facebook posts were running hot and heavy. He did say, police reported, “he was thinking about moving because of the way people were portraying him.”

On Friday, the house on Bluegrass Drive had a real estate sign in the yard, topped with the word: “Bought.”

Harrington said the case warranted the extra time, even if the first assessment by a sheriff’s deputy wound up being the prosecutor’s opinion, as well.

He said the case will provide fodder for the prosecutor’s office’s animal advisory task force, a board of animal control officers, leaders from Greater Lafayette animal shelters and a range of animal welfare advocates. The task force, set up six months ago, is similar to ones that review trends in opiate addiction and child abuse cases.

Harrington said the idea won’t be to aim for changes in law. But he said a fair question would be: Would this case have happened if the county had 24/7 coverage by an animal control officer and Red could have been corralled overnight when he was found roaming the neighborhood east of the Meijer store on Indiana 26.

Smith said that’s not a bad question. Smith said that as much as she would have preferred to see someone who shot a dog face stiffer consequences, she thought the prosecutor gave this case attention. She also said that maybe this case – with as much emotion was tied to it and so much public blowback – would be one that made someone grabbing a gun think twice about shooting a dog.

The dog’s new owner took him to his new home in late March, ditched the name Red – given to him by vets because of all the blood matting his yellow and white fur – and rechristened him Ralph. The new owner, who discovered the dog from a front-page J&C story that made her cry, asked for anonymity, too, for fear of getting caught up with the dog’s past of multiple owners, not to mention the shooting.

But on Friday, she told the J&C that Ralph is doing great and plays nonstop with her other dog. “You would never know anything bad ever happened to him,” the new owner said.

In the weeks of rehab after the shooting, Smith said the dog was puppy-playful, but even-tempered. When he had his rows of stitches taken out, as three people did the medical work, Smith held a spoon of peanut butter to keep his attention. No sedatives needed, she said.

All that’s left is for the dog’s hair to grow back.

“Would I have liked to make some sort of statement with charges? Someday, maybe,” Smith said. “But it’s a happy ending story, really. He’s in such a better situation, hands down.”

She paused.

“I’m not sure it should have taken him getting shot to get there,” Smith said. “But it’s all good. All good, for a good dog.”

Reach Dave Bangert at 765-420-5258 or at dbangert@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @davebangert.