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.
[RELATED: Bangor Man Arrested for Stealing a Woman’s Hat and Pushing Her Out of Her Wheelchair…]
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.
Glad the father was armed,
This father did the right thing protecting his child. Good job sir.
Just like there are people not fit to be parents , there are people who are not fit to own pets.
Robichaud sounds like he fits both profiles .
“Allegedly Charging at Child”FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! Does the damn dog have the right of “innocent until proven guilty” now. I don’t know what word is most overused. Allegedly or racist. Knock it to hell off Seamus.
PS. Excuses are like armpits. Everyone’s got a couple and they all stink.
I am a pit bull lover/ dog lover pit bulls can be the biggest babies as can be any dog. Any dog can be mean big or small. I can tell ypu if a dog was charging at my child,neice,nephew, Grand children or anyone for that matter and I had a gun on me. I would shoot it to protect them. Just like I would shoot a person to protect the child if they was hurting the child. I will rock the orange jail suit for a kid. They cant protect themselves someone has to protect them.
Dogs can sense aggression, the dog may not have known what a gun was nor understand the English language, with a dog he was facing a serious threat.
To attack into that this indication of this dog was truly dangerous.
Had a great day watching live Horse racing in Bangor.Glad the kid and father is ok.
I’m delighted to hear that this vile creature was shot. I’m sick and tired of out-of-control, biting dogs. I have been bitten three times in my life, twice after being told, “don’t worry, he won’t hurt you.” Dogs that bite should be immediately dispatched, no questions asked. That’s how responsible dog owners used to handle that situation. But now, in our society dogs have been elevated to a status that seems inappropriate to me, being allowed to go almost anywhere, people loving on them as if they were children. Love your dog, put them on a pedestal, worship them if you must but keep them away from me.
No sense in taking chances with a charging dog. I had a friend’s 17 month old, 57 lb pit bull, just adopted out of a shelter, come at me while I was sitting on a couch. It was a food aggression issue. He was going for my neck; so, I had to give him my forearm. He sank his teeth into that and started ripping; so, I had to stand up; grab his collar to break his hold on my forearm; twist my body to throw him over my shoulder; and then front kick him in his kidney when he came at me again, again going off the ground for my neck. Luckily, his teeth did not lacerate any major vessels or nerves; but the damage was deep enough that I needed 9 stitches widely spaced (so the wound would drain) and a couple of months to heal. If he had got my neck, I likely would have been more severely injured or dead. And, this was a relatively small pit bull. I believe the dog was eventually euthanized.
I swear more and more people missed the lesson on dog owning and having kids. Pit bulls and many other breeds are quite aggressive in nature and if you don’t have proper training and go to obedience school with your pet it will end badly. Dogs need firm ownership, the alpha male or female and the human needs to be in charge. I hope the owner gets the book thrown at him for such irresponsible and dangerous behavior and the idiot who texted threats needs to spend some time in jail to realize those threats are extremely serious and she should not be making those at any time.
Threatening to kill a man because he injured a dog who would have killed his son-how backwards is this society?
He’s a good dog. A very good dog. That’s what happens when you have a society that worships dogs and dead people. Oh, not to mention the closet communist that flop whatever way the wind (doctrine) blows.
People….Get your shit together. (In my best Asian accent possible)
Yup
That Reegan Katherine ( or whoever posted those comments on Facebook ) sure sounds like one sick puppy to me !
We need to build more prison cells for our psychos .
These people are sick and the sickness is spreading .
Definitely justified. I love dogs and I love my dog, but I can’t say I would do much different in this situation. 🤔 Crappy people make the whole world shitty.😒 😑
As a middle-aged adult who was mauled by a dog when I was a child, I applaud this man’s courage and parental instinct. The terror and fear is a visceral reaction that I can’t turn off, even after therapy. I wish it were different, but it’s not.
Her name is Reegan Waite. She forgot to change her old Facebook url.
1-B. Aggravated cruelty to animals. A person is guilty of aggravated cruelty to animals if that person, in a manner manifesting a depraved indifference to animal life or suffering, intentionally, knowingly or recklessly: A. Causes extreme physical pain to an animal; [PL 2001, c. 425, §8 (NEW).] B. Causes the death of an animal; or [PL 2003, c. 405, §24 (AMD).]
“Dangerous dog” does not include: A. A dog certified by the State and used for law enforcement use B. A dog or wolf hybrid that injures or threatens to assault an individual who is on the dog or wolf hybrid owner’s or keeper’s premises if the dog or wolf hybrid has no prior history of assault and was provoked by the individual immediately prior to the injury or threatened assault
The “Provocation” Factor: If a person provokes a dog into an attack, the assault is no longer unprovoked. Therefore, any resulting killing of the dog would not be covered by the legal privilege of self-defense.
He filmed himself and admitted to threatening the dog. He can be seen screaming into Sam’s yard, provoking the dog IMMEDIATELY BEFORE THE INCIDENT on the video he himself made public. There is video evidence of him threatening to illegally kill Blink for merely trespassing.
Have you investigated the ex-wife’s claims that Adam Stade poured hot sauce down their 4-year-old’s throat, is squatting in her apartment, and is a psycho that she hopes goes to jail? A screen cap of her saying those things was posted online.