As the shooting death of movie star Salma Hayek's dog near Yelm makes headlines in Hollywood, Thurston County Sheriff John Snaza said it appears to be justified.
Actress Salma Hayek announced over Instagram that her pet dog, Mozart, was shot to death at her ranch last week, located in Washington state.
The 9-year-old dog was shot close to his heart, Hayek says.
Here’s what the dog’s caretaker said happened.
Deputy Lt. Cliff Ziesemer says a caretaker was riding a horse around Hayek's property with two dogs following. He says the dogs barked and took off running at the end of the road but eventually came back, as was typical.
Later, when the caretaker returned home, she realized one dog was missing. She found the dog dead and reported it to authorities.
Here’s the veterinarian’s analysis.
Ziesemer says a veterinarian determined a pellet from a pellet gun had nicked an artery and that the dog "slowly bled to death internally."
An autopsy showed that a pellet gun shot through two ribs and nicked an artery. It is not clear where on the property the dog was shot.
Here’s what the neighbors say happened.
On Sunday, a neighbor admitted to shooting the dog with his pellet gun.
The owner, who authorities call Mr. Lund, was not aware that the dog had actually be struck because the dog kept running after he fired the one shot.
The Thurston County Sheriff released the following in a news release:
"According to Mr. Lund, his garage door was open, and he was inside the residence when he heard what sounded like a dog fight in his garage. He opened the door and observed the two neighbor's dogs engaged in a fight with his two German shepherds.
Mr. Lund grabbed his air rifle from his living room and aimed at the behind of the one that looked like a German shepherd, and both dogs then ran off his property."
Thurston County Sheriff John Snaza said it appears to be justified.
Snaza said the Belgian Malinois, Mozart, ended up on a neighbor's property Feb. 19 when Hayek's caretaker went out for a horse ride.
Kim Lund told KIRO 7 she has shooed the dog off her property several times before, but this time it began attacking her dogs inside her garage.
Lund says her husband, Charles, then grabbed a pellet gun and fired.
"He thought he was just scaring it off. We believe his intentions were not to kill the dog," Snaza told reporters.
Ms. Lund said by phone she didn't think the dog was even hit. There was no yelping.
Hayek's ranch caretaker later found Mozart dead.
A necropsy determined the pellet struck an artery.
"At this time we do not see any criminal violation but we are asking the prosecutor to review it for whatever violations they might see," Snaza said.
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Ms. Lund said she felt very sad about the dog's death, and that it was not her husband's intention to kill Mozart.
She said she didn't know who the dog belonged to, or that she had a movie star neighbor, until being visited Sunday by sheriff's deputies.
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