WOOD COUNTY GRAND JURY

Indictments issued in slaying of canine

Pet shot in front of neighbor kids

12/7/2013

BOWLING GREEN — A Wood County grand jury this week indicted a Pemberville, Ohio, man on two counts of endangering children for allegedly shooting and killing his neighbors’ dog in front of two children.

Christopher Zimmerman, 64, also is charged in Bowling Green Municipal Court with aggravated menacing, injuring animals, inducing panic, and discharging firearms in the Sept. 8 incident. A trial for that is set for Jan. 28; Wood County Prosecutor Paul Dobson said some counts may be dismissed in light of the indictments.

The new charges accuse Mr. Zimmerman of shooting the dog in front of the family’s 6-year-old and an 8-year-old, “and that without a valid self-defense argument that he recklessly, cruelly abused” the children, Mr. Dobson said.

Defense attorney Scott Coon said the shooting was self-defense. He said Mr. Zimmerman, who has a concealed-carry permit, was walking to his vehicle when the dog charged him, snarling, and with raised hair on the back of its neck. “He’s a disabled Vietnam veteran who suffers from diabetes, and he was concerned the dog was going to attack him and bite him,” Mr. Coon said, adding the dog had menaced Mr. Zimmerman previously and was running loose despite warnings by Mr. Zimmerman and the sheriff’s office.

He is to be arraigned Dec. 16 before Wood County Common Pleas Judge Reeve Kelsey.