Joe Sokol Contributed to This Article.
A Bangor dog owner is facing civil charges after his pit bull reportedly charged aggressively toward his neighbor’s three-year-old on Tuesday, and the neighbor fatally shot the dog.
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At approximately 8:48 a.m., the Bangor Police Department received a report of shots fired on March Street.
Officers responded and allegedly found that a resident of March Street had fired at and struck a large dog after it charged at him and his toddlers.
Adam Stade, the man who shot the pit bull named “Blink,” spoke with the Maine Wire and explained his side of the story.
“If you are a dog owner, you still have a responsibility to protect other little kids and grown-ups from your dog, and it’s sad that there are so many irresponsible dog owners out there,” said Stade.
He told us that the shooting was not the first time he had been menaced by the animal.
The first incident took place the same week the shooting happened.
Stade said that he previously called police following one of the incidents, and Animal Control responded. They allegedly attempted to speak with the dog’s owner, who he says refused to open his door for them and only spoke with them through his window.
After animal control spoke with the owner, the dog was allowed off leash again, and the owner reportedly claimed that his animal would never hurt anyone, according to Stade.
“You need to put your dog on a leash; if he comes over here, I will shoot your dog. I don’t want to shoot anyone’s dog; I love dogs, but I don’t want that dog attacking me or my son,” warned Stade.
Stade says he believes the dog’s owner let go of its collar on purpose before it charged at him. He also said that he often hears screaming from the dog owner’s house.
“That dog came flying straight across his whole driveway into my yard, and I shot it with Benny [Stade’s son] right behind me. I shot at it four times and hit it once, then the kid came flying over my garden to get his dog and chased it back to his place,” Stade told The Maine Wire.
“My main thought was, ‘Benny’s right here; I can’t let the dog get past me,'” he added.
Stade said that after the incident, he began getting death threats online. He provided a screenshot of some of the messages he received from a Facebook user by the name Reegan Katherine, who appeared to explicitly threaten to murder Stade and wish death upon his son.
Stade said that he showed Katherine’s threat to police, who have, he says, issued a summons to Katherine for allegedly issuing a threat.
“Nothing in the news coverage of it said that it was a father, a single dad of a three-year-old protecting his son from a vicious pitbull that was attacking him on his property, so it’s a lot of media bias,” said Stade.
He said that people posted his business card online including his phone number and email address.
He blamed WABI-TV’s coverage of the incident for the death threats and hate he received.
Stade praised the police response to the incident.
“I love all those people down there,” said Stade. “They’re all really great people.”
He was given his handgun back on Wednesday, the day after the incident.
According to police, the dog was initially transported to an emergency veterinarian by the Bangor Animal Control Officer.
Detectives began an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident, including a review of video footage of the alleged shooting.
Following the investigation, detectives allegedly determined that Stade and his toddler were playing outside in a small area of their driveway at the time.
At the same time, the neighbor’s dog was not tethered or under the control of its owner, and allegedly ran aggressively towards the Stade and his son.
On Wednesday, the dog’s owner was charged with dogs at large, a civil offense.
The owner had reportedly been warned by animal control officers previously for failing to control the dog.
The owner of the dog, identified by the Bangor Daily News as Samuel Robichaud, spoke with the outlet and identified the dog as a Pitbull, and said that it was put down due to the severity of its injuries.
