PEMBERVILLE – A village man has been cited
after he reportedly shot and killed a dog on College Avenue while a young boy watched on Sunday.Christopher
W. Zimmerman, 64, was criminally cited for injuring animals, inducing panic, and pointing and discharging
firearms following the incident.According to a Pemberville Police report, on Sunday just after 5 p.m.
officers were dispatched to the 100 block of West College on the report that a dog was shot.Once there, the
dog’s owner, Martin Smith, 44, indicated that he had opened the door to their porch to let out the
6-month-old mix-breed dog, named Puppy, and to greet his three children.One of the boys attempted to
retrieve the animal before it went on Zimmerman’s property, located next door, because “they knew Mr.
Zimmerman didn’t want the dog to be on his property and they had been warned before by the dog warden and
the Wood County Sheriff’s to keep the dog on their property.”Zimmerman at that point reportedly exited his
residence and saw the dog on his driveway. However, Smith asserted that the dog was not coming at Zimmerman
“in an aggressive manner,” according to the report.Zimmerman reportedly shouted “Get the hell away” to the
boy coming after the dog. The boy backed away, and Zimmerman pulled out a .45 caliber Desert Eagle handgun,
and shot at the dog at a reported distance of approximately five feet. The boy was standing on his family’s
driveway, approximately 10 to 15 feet away from Zimmerman at the time.The dog, shot in the right front side,
just behind the front leg, then “came running back to the porch with blood squirting from its wound and
eventually dying minutes later.”Two of Smith’s children then ran inside their home, and Smith called
911.According to the report, Zimmerman “stated that he shot the dog because it came towards him when he was
coming out of his garage door” and that the dog had “ ‘raised its hackles’ like it was going to
attack.”Zimmerman had filed a previous report concerning the dog on Aug. 19 of this year, stating that the
animal had raised its hackles at that time “like it was going to attack him,” and that the dog was grabbed
at that time by one of Smith’s children.According to the report, Zimmerman at that time had stated that he
would “shoot the damn thing” if it came near him again while he was on his property.Zimmerman, according to
the report, fired his weapon towards the rear of the residence and away from the boy.In the report, the
reporting officer wrote that, based on the placement of the bullet wound “the dog could not have been
running towards (Zimmerman) as he had stated.”A person who answered a call placed by the Sentinel-Tribune at
Zimmerman’s listed number Tuesday seeking comment said that he was not in and that they had no information
on the incident. A telephone number could not be located for Smith.