A man whose dog was shot to death by a Lander County sheriff's deputy in April pleaded guilty to having a dog running at large and was fined $195 in the Argenta Justice Court on July 15.
Jose Assumpcao and his girlfriend, Jessica Gokey, who owned the dog, were taken into custody April 28, after the shooting for having a dangerous dog running at large. Gokey will appear in justice court Aug. 25 and is also being charged with having a dog running at large.
Bella, a 9-month-old pit bull mix, whose owners had had her since she was a small puppy, was raised around children and had never been vicious, they said.
She was just one of three dogs belonging to Gokey and Assumpcao that showed up at Borealis Park after escaping from their yard April 28. Bella was accompanied by Zoey, a 1-year-old female mixed breed, and Chuko, a 2-year-old male pit bull.
Sheriff's Deputy Stephen Priest killed Bella with three shots in front of small children after the dog charged him, Lander County Sheriff Ron Unger said.
Priest fired a shot that grazed her, knocking her down but then she got back up, running at him again at which time the deputy fired off two more shots, killing her.
The other dogs ran home and were not seized by law enforcement because they did not attack anyone, Unger said.
Gokey and Assumpcao said after the shooting that they were devastated over losing Bella. They felt she should have been subdued by non-lethal force such as a taser or pepper spray.
The couple, who were not home when the situation occurred, had no idea the dogs would escape the yard since they had just repaired the fence, Gokey said. They moved into their rental in January and had had problems before with the fence but thought they had finally gotten it fixed, she added.
The original call that evening came in from an off duty deputy who said the dogs had him trapped in his yard near the park on Bastian Road, Unger said. The off duty deputy chased the canines away and then followed them to Borealis Park where he tried unsuccessfully to shut the gate before they slipped inside while several small children were playing.
The deputy hollered for the children to climb onto the playground equipment, which they did, Unger said, adding that the dogs were acting aggressively.
When Priest arrived on scene, the off duty deputy hollered for him to grab a shotgun, which he did before entering the park and shooting Bella as she was running toward him.
There had been nine previous incidents involving the dogs, consisting of numerous complaints such as dogs running at large, Unger said. The owners had also been cited twice in March and April for having dangerous dogs running at large.[[In-content Ad]]
