HUDSONVILLE, Mich. — A family in Hudsonville is mourning their 6-year-old dog, accusing their next door neighbor of shooting and killing him Saturday. But Tuesday the Ottawa County Sheriff's spokesperson says the dog's owner may be charged for letting her animal run at-large.
"My heart sank because the barking stopped," said Linda Holmes to FOX 17 Monday. "And I knew he shot him. I knew it. And then I heard another one. Why did he have to do it twice?"
Holmes and her family are devastated after losing their German Shepherd, Sawyer, who they believe was shot twice in the head.
Meanwhile, their neighbor - the wife of the man who shot Sawyer, who FOX 17 is not naming - says they are "sick" that Sawyer died and that it came to this.
She tells FOX 17 that Sawyer was a long-time threat to their family, saying the dog would often come onto their property and once bit her husband in the back of his leg and chased and scared their grandchildren.
Saturday morning, the neighbor says her husband was working on their home when Sawyer came running at him with his "teeth out," and that's when her husband shot in self-defense. Sawyer died feet from their home, she says.
While Capt. Mark Bennett with the Ottawa County Sheriff's Department says there was a history with the dog running in the neighbor's yard, Holmes tells FOX 17 she had an invisible fence but perhaps a snow plow knocked out its wiring.
Bennett says the Ottawa County prosecutor will soon review the case and will consider charging Holmes with letting her animal run at large.
