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Neighbors react after dog shot and killed at Richmond apartments

Posted at 10:09 PM, Mar 10, 2017
and last updated 2017-03-11 00:11:09-05

RICHMOND, Va. – Ezell Lee doesn't know what he would do without his beloved dog Cleo, so news that someone shot and killed a neighbor's dog in his parking lot Tuesday shook him up.

"I feel awful. I am through, I am through, I am really through," Lee said.

Christie Chipps Peters with Richmond Animal Care and Control said it happened behind the Imani Mews apartment complex off Hull Street.

She said surveillance video shows a 14 pound white and brown terrier mix tied to a pole with a leash when a man walked down some nearby stairs.

Police search for man accused of fatally shooting dog

"The dog frightened him, he dropped his gun, picked his gun back up, walked back up the stairs, turned and shot the dog," Chipps Peters said.

Chipps Peters gave us pictures of the man in the hopes that someone will recognize him.

He ran after shooting the dog and now faces possible felony cruelty charges.

"We have connections to people in the complex who know this person in the complex but nobody is coming clean," Chipps Peters said.

Chipps Peters admitted the dog did have a bite history, and CBS 6 reporter Melissa Hipolit spoke to a woman off camera who told us the dog bit her three different times on her legs before the man came down the stairs.

She showed us the scars.

Still, Chipps Peters and Lee both said shooting the dog went too far.

"Too much, too much," Lee said.

Police search for man accused of fatally shooting dog

"It takes a really sad person to do something like that, it really does, the dog is 14 pounds, this is a bigger man, the dog was tied up couldn’t get to him," Chipps Peters said.

The suspect is described as a black male in his 30’s. He was wearing a dark sweatshirt over a white t-shirt, dark sweatpants, no socks, black and white Adidas-type sandals and a dark baseball cap, worn backward.

Detectives ask anyone with any information about this man’s identity to call Rob Leinberger at Richmond Animal Care & Control at (804) 646-5577 or Crime Stoppers at 780-1000. Citizens can also text Crime Stoppers at 274637, using the key word “ITip” followed by your tip. Both Crime Stoppers methods are anonymous.

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