Arizona Man Allegedly Shoots, Kills His Neighbor’s Pit Bull: ‘What I Did Was Worth It’

(Mark Makela/Getty Images)

An Arizona man was arrested for allegedly shooting and killing a neighbor’s pit bull while it was caged, according to local news reports this week.

Andrew Evans, 63, was arrested on Nov. 25 in Mesa, Arizona, reported AZFamily.com. He is facing charges of killing an animal, burglary, and disorderly conduct.

Police said that on Nov. 25, there was a conflict between Evans and his neighbor when his dog, a Chihuahua, was attacked by the pit bull, the report said.

The Mesa Police Department said the larger pit bull went after his dog, biting it, and causing severe injuries to the dog. Evans also claimed he was bitten by the animal, but police said he didn’t appear to have serious injuries.

Evans said that when he took his dog to the veterinarian, saying the bill was $8,000 for the dog’s treatment, the report stated.

Andrew Evans, 63, was arrested in Mesa, Arizona, on Nov. 25. He is facing charges of killing an animal, burglary, and disorderly conduct. (Mesa Police)

While he took his dog to the vet, Evans said the owner of the pit bull agreed to watch his garage sale that Evans was holding. Mesa Police said when he came back from the vet, he went inside the pit bull owner’s home before shooting and killing the dog.

Evans, police said, “shot the victim’s dog twice in the head while the dog was secured in a cage within the residence,” AZFamily reported. Evans then buried the dog somewhere in the desert.

Police said Evans admitted to entering the victim’s residence “with the intent to shoot, kill the victim’s dog, due to the victim’s larger dog attacking the defendant’s small dog,” the report said.

In a statement to police, he was quoted as saying: “I took my 9 mm Glock and put 2 bullets into the pit bull’s brain. The pit bull was in a cage. I then took the pit bull and cage and buried it in the desert.”

Evans also said he “double tapped the pit bull while it was in his neighbor’s residence,” without elaborating, according to police. And, meanwhile, “what he did was worth it,” police quoted him as saying.

The neighbor was identified as Joe Cruz. A friend of his, Jamie Connors, said the incident was distressing.

“She was laying in a puddle of blood in her kennel. That’s not something for somebody to see,” Connors told the News and Tribune. “This was my child’s best friend. For someone to do something like this? There’s no justification.”

“Whether your dog got hurt or not, it gives you no right to walk into somebody’s home and shoot somebody’s dog dead,” Connors said of Evans’ reasoning to shoot the animal.

“And even if your dog died, does that give you any justification to kill somebody else’s? I don’t believe so,” she continued.

Cruz told the paper that he and Evans had a friendly relationship until the shooting on Sunday.

‘Most Abused Dogs on Earth’

Animal rights group PETA has said that pit bulls are “the most abused dogs on Earth.”

“Pit bulls are left at shelters in record numbers—and since they are difficult to adopt out, reputable shelters (that don’t slam the door in the dogs’ faces) are finding that they must euthanize more pit bulls and pit bull mixes than all other dogs combined,” the group said.

Karen Delise, research director for the National Canine Research Council and author of “The Pitbull Placebo,” has investigated hundreds of dog bite incidents.

She wrote in a now-taken down article: “My study of dog bite-related fatalities occurring over the past five decades has identified the poor ownership/management practices involved in the overwhelming majority of these incidents: owners obtaining dogs, and maintaining them as resident dogs outside of regular, positive human interaction, often for negative functions (i.e. guarding/protection, fighting, intimidation/status).”