Authorities in Blue Earth County, Southern Minnesota, are searching for the person who fatally shot a dog at her home. Reports say the medium-sized, mixed-breed dog named Lily was sunbathing on the home’s second-story deck when someone fired at her.
Shockingly, Lily’s killing came two weeks after her family received a threatening note. The note warned them to curb their canines’ excessive barking.
Minnesota family grieves as dog is shot on home’s deck
According to Star Tribune News, the tragic incident happened on Saturday, March 30, shortly before 6:30 p.m. Alyssa DeBill told the news outlet that she and her fiancé, Preston Fleischer, were not around at the time of the shooting. However, their two sons were home with Lily and the other two family dogs.
“Our 10-year-old called my fiancé hysterically crying and screaming that Lily was shot and bleeding,” a heartbroken DeBill narrated. Authorities suspect the unknown shooter hid in a marshy ravine roughly 40 feet away before aiming at Lily and striking her in the chest.
Fleischer, DeBill’s fiancé, told CBS News that two weeks before Lily’s killing, he came across a note on his driveway. The profanity-filled note had the words, “If your dogs are out barking one more time, they are dead.”
Alarmed by the note’s content, Fleischer reported the matter to the authorities. The grieving family is trying to come to terms with Lily’s senseless shooting, adding she “would only bark if the stray cats, wildlife, or people, or cars were coming up to our house.” In fact, their nearest neighbor lives roughly 125 yards away.
Paul Barta, Blue Earth County Sheriff’s Office captain, said they’re working round the clock to bring the shooter to book. “Events like this can make our constituency… feel uncomfortable and unsafe, so we certainly want to do everything we can to get answers.”
