Deputy shoots dog

Ruben Dominguez was angry and looking for answers after a sheriff's deputy fatally shot his dog just before noon Monday while serving him papers.

He said deputy Bobby Hodges went to his West Odessa home 11 a.m. Monday at 12001 W. Everett St. while he was at work to give him papers on a child support case, when Hodges came across his rottweiler, Suki, and shot her when Hodges felt threatened by her.

"He had my number. After he shot my dog, he called me and asked if I could come out to my house... why couldn't he tell me he had to serve me some papers?" Dominguez said.

Sheriff Mark Donaldson said Hodges was justified to enter the yard to serve the civil papers and carry out police business if he felt it was safe to do so, and then he was also justified to shoot the dog if she threatened his safety.

"If a big rottweiler is coming to bite you and they can kill you, you have a right to protect yourself as any other citizen would," he said said.

Donaldson said Hodges saw things at the house suggesting there was a dog there, though he was not sure Hodges actually saw Suki. Dominguez said Hodges told him he saw Suki in the yard but decided she was not a threat, so he walked through one of the gates and approached his front door.

Then, according to the reports Donaldson collected from Hodges and another officer with him at the time, Suki started chasing Hodges. Donaldson said he jumped a brick fence near the front door but Suki kept chasing him, so the deputy pulled out his gun and shot him.

Drops of dried blood lead from the dirt just outside the brick wall to the dog house and toward one of the gates, where the drops become a large lump where Suki succumbed to the gunshot wound.

Dominguez said Hodges never told him Suki was chasing him, and he said Suki was never that kind of dog that would chase people. Even then, he said it's natural for a dog to protect its home.

Dominguez further claimed that the sheriff's office would not accept his complaint or provide him with the reports on his dog's shooting.

"(Investigator Richard Pate) said you could not file a complaint, everything was by the book, there was nothing they could do," he said.

Donaldson said Dominguez had to go to the station in person to file that complaint, and he had not done so by Tuesday.