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Midland Man Says a Neighbor Shot & Killed his Dog for no Reason
Midland Man Says a Neighbor Shot and Killed his Dog for no Reason 10/3/12
CBS 7 Reporter
smurray@cbs7.com
October 3, 2012
Midland, TX - A Midland man says this weekend his best friend was murdered.
"He did not, absolutely not deserve to be shot for no reason," Marv Esterly says.
He claims his 3-year-old dog was shot and killed by someone close to his home.
Esterly got the frantic call from a neighbor on Saturday, that his dogs got out of the fence and one of them was dead. He soon learned that his boxer, Ruger, was killed by his own neighbor
Marv and his wife Karen live in a rural area of North Midland with a spacious yard of 3 acres for their dogs to run free.
However, they say, this past weekend their peaceful neighborhood was anything but that.
"We received a call from our neighbor next door and he told us that our dogs had escaped."
The couple rushed home only to find their dog dead on the side of the road.
"I sat there for 20 minutes with my dog on the side of the road,” Esterly remembers. “I had to pick up my dog and bring him back here it was the toughest thing I’ve ever done in my life."
Esterly says the dog was shot and killed by his neighbor.
"His name was Ruger and he was my best friend. He would lay on my lap watch the football game," he remembers.
“Just the gentlest dog, he’s got the cutest little face,” Karen says looking through pictures.
"He wouldn't hurt a fly. The grandchildren, kids would come over they can jump all over him do whatever, he just liked to play," Esterly claims. "You can't just shoot an animal, a defenseless animal unless you have some reason to do that. Animals are not just personal property they are like your children."
Esterly says the Stanley Lucius Atnipp was arrested by sheriff’s deputies on scene for threatening to shoot a woman who lives in the neighborhood that was trying to help. He was charged with Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon. He has since bonded out of jail.
We will of course continue to follow this developing story.