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Owner of dog shot by neighbor says he should resign as pastor
By Ed Runyan
VIENNA
The owner of a fatally wounded dog says she supports an effort to force the man who shot her pet to resign as minister of a Niles church.
“None of it makes any sense – for that man to go about his pastoral duties. He doesn’t have the right,” said Kimberly Ellis of Vienna.
A family friend of Ellis’ and her husband posted a note Friday on the Justice For Tucker Group on Facebook, saying a letter had been mailed to the Apostolic Bible Church of Niles early this week calling for Pastor David Murphy to resign.
The posting said the church did not respond to the letter by Friday, so a protest will take place at the church Sunday morning “if you do not make a public announcement that you have stepped down” by 11 a.m. Saturday.
Murphy was charged Monday in Girard Municipal Court with a misdemeanor injuring-animals charge after admitting he had shot Ellis’ black Labrador retriever, Tucker, last Saturday after it and another dog came into his backyard. The dog was 15 months old.
Murphy told police he fired near the two dogs because the Labrador was acting aggressively near his chicken coop.
“I shot at the dog to miss him and to scare him, but actually ended up hitting him. I was just protecting my chickens,” Murphy told 21 WFMJ-TV, The Vindicator’s broadcast partner.
Ellis said she plans to peacefully assemble near the church Sunday to demonstrate her belief that Murphy should not be a pastor.
A call to the church was not answered Friday afternoon.
Ellis said she was working near her horse stalls in the backyard of her home on 80 acres along Warren-Sharon Road when she realized that Tucker was not nearby, which was unusual.
She concluded that Tucker had met up with her parents’ dog directly behind her house.
After searching about 30 minutes on her four-wheeler, she heard four gunshots and three “yelps,” and headed in the direction of the sounds.
Ellis said she went directly to Murphy’s house, spoke with a woman there and was told the sound had come from somewhere else. She searched another 30 minutes before finding Tucker near the Murphy residence. He had three gunshot wounds and wasn’t able to move.
She had the dog euthanized after a veterinarian told her one of the shots severed the dog’s spine. Ellis said Tucker was her constant companion, and she doesn’t believe the dog posed any danger to Murphy’s chickens.