JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A man was arrested Sunday night after shooting and killing his neighbor’s dog for barking, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office said.
Sebastian Redmon, 45, is charged with animal cruelty.
According to police, Redmon told his neighbor while she was walking her German shepherd on West 16th Street that he didn’t like the 2-year-old dog, and said he would shoot it if it kept barking at him.
Korsha Washington told police that on Sunday night, she was watching television when she heard her dog, Brocious Washington, barking. She said she looked out of the window and saw Redmon shoot Brocious twice then run off.
“It’s just evil for somebody to even do that to him. He's a puppy,” Washington said.
Brocious was fatally shot in the leg and the back, police said.
Redmon told a neighbor that Brocious bit him a couple of weeks ago, but Washington said her dog only scratched him.
"My dog did not bite him. My dog jumped up on him and scratched him and tore his pants. I asked him to let me see the bite and he just rode off,” Washington said.
News4Jax asked other residents in the Allendale neighborhood about how they felt about Brocious. Neighbors said Brocious should have been guarded with a bigger, higher fence.
“I have five kids and they walk up and down the street and they have to turn around and go the long way to the store because they're scared that the dog will jump the gate, and they always leave that gate open. The gate stays open,” one neighbor said.
“(The fence) wasn't tall enough,” another neighbor said. “The side of the fence, on the side of the house, wasn't tall enough at the end where it looked like he was about to jump the fence.”
Washington described her dog as a puppy that acted like any other dog and said her puppy didn't deserve this.
“That's just a real evil. He wasn't nothing but a puppy. He wasn't vicious. He wasn't biting nobody. He wasn't doing any of that,” Washington said. “He's going to bark and he's going to do what a dog do.”
Redmon was booked into the Duval County Jail and ordered held on $150,000 bond.