Posted on 10/26/2021 5:18:11 AM PDT by marktwain
A man who shot and fatally wounded his neighbor’s dog in southern Stafford County earlier this year is no longer facing charges.
Fred Asiedu, 26, went to Stafford General District Court Wednesday facing felony charges of maiming a dog and destruction of property and a misdemeanor charge of reckless handling of a firearm.
At the end of a preliminary hearing, Judge Angela O’Connor decided not to send the charges to circuit court for trial. O’Connor ruled that the evidence was insufficient even for probable cause, a much lower standard than the “beyond a reasonable doubt” standard required for an eventual conviction.
According to police and evidence put on by prosecutor Jennifer Lindsey, Asiedu went to Wilfredo Laboy’s home on Harper Lane on June 11 to discuss an incident earlier that day in which Asiedu claimed Laboy’s dogs got loose and forced him back into his vehicle to avoid an attack.
One of the dogs, an Australian shepherd, got out again after Laboy answered the knock at the door. He went toward Asiedu, who fired a single shot into the dog, which had to be put down as a result.
Asiedu immediately called the police and reported the incident. The ensuing investigation, which included a Ring video, resulted in his arrest a few days later.
Under cross-examination from defense attorney Mark Murphy, Laboy admitted he was unaware that the dogs had gotten out earlier. Workers were doing a project in his yard and apparently didn’t properly secure a gate.
Murphy said his client had backed away after ringing the doorbell and shot only after feeling threatened by the approaching dog.
Lindsey still has the option of asking a grand jury to directly indict Asiedu, which could result in the charges being reinstated.
If the dogs escape the owners control, the owners are responsible.
In this case, the person threatened by the dogs acted responibly, going to the owners house to inform them of the danger their dogs represented. He wisely armed himself so as to be able to defend against what had already proved to be a dangerous dog.
Then, when the dangerous dog threatened him again, he attempted to retreat, and only shot the dog as a last resort.
Pit bulls?
Worse, a Australian shepherd.
Please name the state (or at least the country!) in the title of a post for a local news item so I don’t have to waste time as I did with this one that requires completion of a “survey” before accessing the article. Many thanks!
Per wiki...
“Temperament...The Australian Shepherd is described as intelligent, active, loyal, protective, playful and adaptive.[2][4][3] The modern breed is predominantly bred for pets, despite this many retain a strong herding instinct and it is not uncommon for companion dogs of the breed to try to herd children or other pets.[2][5] A very active breed, the Australian Shepherd is known to become destructive if it doesn’t receive adequate exercise.[2]”
You have never been around Australian shepherds have you?
You have never been around Australian shepherds have you?
Virginia.
people always let their dogs run loose and then wonder why the neighbors are pissed off.
My neighbor across the street is terrified of dogs- he’s not happy when our other neighbors let their dogs come over to shit.
I’m not scared of dogs- but keep your dog in your own yard.
“Owners are responsible for the actions of their dogs.”
We have a “lady” on our block who up until last week had a large example of one of “those” dogs. It lived in her backyard 24-7-365. Predictability it escaped regularly and ran loose. It attacked another dog while it was being walked. Literally over a dozen complaints were filed and are being litigated now.
The animal was put down but she refuses to accept any responsibility for the damage it did. This in spite of pictures and video of the animal running unsupervised and frightening people in their own yards.
She claims we are all harassing her because she’s a “single mom of color”.
We tried inviting her to our Klan Bake but to no avail.
L
Australian Shepherds are NOT aggressive or dangerous at all. Anybody who has ever had one will agree with me on this. There has to be more to this story than what is being reported.
I don't know about marktwain, but I've never been around aussie shepards.
What's the point are you trying to infer?
maybe dog #1 was a pitbull/ aggressive dog. Traps neighbor in his truck.
Neighbor goes to owner’s to discuss, other dog pushes past, guy on porch is spooked and thinks same dog, or at least same temperment dog.
Keep your dogs in your own yard and train them to come when you call them.
Any and all dog breeds can be trained to be mean no matter what their default temperament is “supposed” to be.
That is like saying a VW Bug can never be made to go fast.
Try inviting her to a fish fry.
My neighbor has TWO Australian shepherds.
They are extremely ‘protective’ of their owners.
And dangerous....................
Same with pit bulls...................People just don’t understand them.........................
They were originally interbred with wild Dingos, they still have this retroactive wild trait if encouraged to be aggressive.
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