HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — Outrage is spreading through a Hollywood neighborhood after a family dog was killed: A man admits he strangled the pet, saying he was protecting his own dog.
Both dog owners are telling different stories and neighbors say the whole block is traumatized.
It happened after one family’s pit bull, Bailey, got loose Saturday morning and ended up dead.
“She was my baby,” said Araly Kelly, fighting back tears. Kelly was Bailey’s owner.
Video captured during the incident shows a neighbor saying, “I’m going to kill your dog.”
“He was on top of my dog, choking her out,” said Maurice Kelly, Araly’s son.
Araly Kelly said Bailey got out of their yard. Moments later, they heard shouting and found their neighbor on top of her.
Maurice started recording.
In the video, a voice is heard saying, “Watch him die. That’s what he’s doing right now.”
The neighbor, Roy McConnell, said the confrontation started when he stepped outside to walk his dog.
“The pit bull charged, just like a bull, straight at our dog. Latched on and wouldn’t let go,” McConnell said.
He said he acted to protect himself and his dog, claiming that this wasn’t the first time.
“It happens once. It happens twice. Three times it won’t happen,” he said.
Police reports back up part of his account, stating he was unable to separate the two dogs and ended up strangling the Kellys’ pit bull.
“I didn’t like what I had to do, OK? These bites on my arm, they’re from my dog, because he was in such pain,” McConnell said, crying.
In the end, Araly Kelly was cited for having her dog off-leash on city property.
“My kids are traumatized,” she said.
Now both families are left shaken ― one grieving a loss, the other defending actions they say were taken out of fear.
“I didn’t want to do it,” McConnell said. “I did it because I had to.”
For now, beyond that citation, no further charges have been filed.
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