According to WCBI, an MHP Trooper has been charged with animal cruelty after allegedly shooting and killing his neighbor’s dog.
The trooper, identified as Raphael McClain now faces Animal Cruelty charges. He is on administrative leave without pay pending the outcome of the investigation.
Investigators say McClain is charged with aggravated cruelty to a dog or cat and simple cruelty.
A couple in Calhoun City, Joey and Natalie Knight, said that McClain shot and killed their 9-year-old dog, Sipsey.
Trooper McClain is their neighbor, according to the couple.
WCBI reports that on Saturday, Knight heard a gunshot. He called deputies to his home and later found Sipsey dead in McClain’s backyard.
“I was not expecting to see what I saw, and what I can describe it as is complete and utter horror that he had allegedly thrown our dog on top of his burn pile with burnt debris, and aerosol cans, and trash bags, and everything on it as if he was about to burn him,”
Knight said that his dog bit Trooper McClain three years before the incident, but he doesn’t know why McClain would shoot his dog now.
WCBI got a statement from Knight saying,
“We hear his gun go off a good bit and you see how close we are to the school. You can hear the announcements from the high school, and when you are at the softball field you can watch the football game from the end of the street. The walking track and the park, this is not a place where guns need to be fired off,”
The Knight family filed charges against the Trooper.
