Police: Man shoots neighbor's pit bull

FLORIDA -- Jennifer Burga said her 2-year-old pit bull is one the sweetest, most harmless dogs someone would ever meet.

“All she does is look up at you and wag her tail,” Burga said.

Burga was in the shower when she heard a gunshot ring out. When she opened the front door, her dog ran in yelping and crying with a trail of blood behind her.

When Burga stepped outside, her next-door neighbor Patrick Barry was standing nearby.

“I yell, and I said, ’Did you just shoot my dog?’” Burga said. “He was real cold. All he said was, ’Is she dead?’”

Neighbors who witnessed the shooting told Boca Raton police that the pit bull was lying down in her own front yard when Barry walked over from his house and shot the dog.

“My dog was just minding her own business in my yard,” Burga said. “He was on a mission to kill my dog.”

Barry told police and Animal Control investigators that he was walking his own dog when the pit bull lunged at them.

Barry claimed he feared for his own life and his dog’s life, grabbed a gun from his waistband and shot the pit bull.

However, the bullet wound was on the underside of the pit bull’s tail, and investigators noted it was odd that a charging dog was shot in the tail rather than the head or chest.

When police heard witness accounts from neighbors, Barry was arrested for animal cruelty, false reporting and shooting a gun in public.

[This guy might be a crazy who likes to shoot dogs, but on the other hand, a dog does not have to be charging directly at you for you to be in fear for your life and the life of your pet.

Imagine you've got your dog on a leash and it runs up and you grab your dog into your arms and this dog is circling you and keeps coming. You're holding your struggling dog in one hand and trying to reach for your gun in your other hand while yelling and kicking at this pit bull to keep it at bay. You finally pull the gun out and shoot at the dog and hit it at an angle.

Also, if the pit bull was simply lying in its own yard and he walked up and shot it point-blank, why did he only hit the "underside" of its tail? It's seems you would be a perfect shot at point-blank but not a perfect shot if the dog were coming after you and you were moving and shooting.... see what I mean?

I'm not sure who is telling the truth on this one.]

Burga said she only recently moved into the house, and doesn't know Barry very well.

However, in the short time she has lived there, Burga said Barry had already threatened to shoot her dog after the pit bull managed to squeeze through a gap in the fence into his yard.

Barry did not respond to requests for comment.

The dog is expected to make a full recovery.

(WPBF West Palm Beach - July 9, 2014)