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DECATUR — A Decatur man who broke up a fight between two pet dogs by shooting one of them dead with a .38 caliber revolver was arrested Friday morning and booked on a preliminary charge of being a felon in possession of a weapon, police reports say.

Officers had been called to a business side yard in the 1500 block of North Main Street just after 8 a.m. after neighbors called in reporting hearing the sound of two gunshots.

Detective Sgt. Chris Copeland said police arrived to find a pit bull laying dead in the yard. “The dog had two bullet wounds: one to the head and one to the body,” Copeland added.

“The arrested person was a male aged 60 who said he had to shoot the dead dog because it was attacking another pet dog. He said he tried pulling them apart, couldn’t get the dogs apart, and so he went inside and got his revolver. He doesn’t have a FOID card and also has a prior felony conviction and so that is what he got arrested for.”

Copeland said both dogs belonged to the man’s girlfriend and both he and the woman told police they had been bitten previously by the pit bull while attempting to stop it from attacking other pet dogs.