L’Observateur / November 24, 1999

LAPLACE – A local man has been arrested and charged with cruelty to animals after he shot a female German Shepard dog in his yard.

On Sunday afternoon, St. John Sheriff’s deputies responded to a complaintof gunshots being fired in the 2200 block of Cambridge. When deputiesarrived, a person told them that he had heard shots coming from the house behind him and then a man yelling about a dog .

The deputies went around the block to 242 Virginia Colony Avenue and confronted the owner of the house, 35-year-old Kevin Bell. The officersfound the body of the dead dog, and Bell admitted killing it.

“He was tired of the dog getting into his yard and digging holes,” reported Capt. Mike Tregre of the St. John Sheriff’s Office.Bell handed over the weapon, a 9mm Lugar pistol, to the police.

Bell was arrested for illegal use of a weapon and simple cruelty to animals.

When the police checked his background in the computer, they discovered that Bell was also a convicted felon, and he was additionally charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

The owner of the dog has not been located.

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