She Was Walking Her Daughter's Puppy. Then, a 'Pop'

An evening stroll with her 8-year-old daughter's puppy ended in tragedy Saturday for a Florida woman. WPLG and the Sun Sentinel report that a 19-year-old Miami man was arrested Saturday and hit with felony animal-cruelty charges after cops say he trained a sniper rifle on an 8-month-old Chihuahua, then shot and killed her. Roshelle Parson, who'd just moved to the Sunshine State from Wisconsin, was walking Princess with her boyfriend in a Davie neighborhood around 6:30pm Saturday when they heard a "pop," then saw blood in Princess' mouth as she began whimpering and tugging on her leash; the puppy was dead within minutes. Per the Miami Herald, an off-duty cop saw two men on a nearby second-story balcony run inside after the gunshot, one of them with a scoped rifle, and he and other witnesses called 911.

Police who converged on that apartment say they found Johansen Concepcion De La Ros inside, along with Daniel Alvarez (it was his apartment) and the rifle. Both men were taken in for questioning, with Concepcion De La Ros telling cops the shooting was an accident, and that he'd been firing toward a nearby lake when the puppy and her owner crossed into the line of fire. But Alvarez told police that Concepcion De La Ros came to his place with rifle in hand and said while they were out on his balcony, "I'm going to shoot the dog" when he spotted Parson walking Princess. Parson says she and her daughter had just driven down Friday night from Wisconsin and that the little girl had "played with the dog the whole way here." Concepcion De La Ros is being held at the Broward County Jail on $2,500 bond. He may face a $10,000 fine and up to five years in prison if convicted. (More animal cruelty stories.)