Man arrested in fatal shooting of Army sergeant’s caged therapy dog at Davie pet clinic
A man was arrested Tuesday after shooting an Army sergeant’s caged therapy dog multiple times at a veterinarian’s office in Davie, according to authorities.
Chayse Billie, 21, was charged with aggravated animal crueltyand released from jail Wednesday on a $25,000 bond. He is prohibited from returning to the clinic, keeping domestic animals and possessing firearms, according to the Broward State Attorney’s Office.
Early Friday morning, video surveillance captured Billie arriving on a bike and walking towards an occupied kennel on the south side of the Aycock Veterinary Clinic located on 5490 Stirling Rd., according to his arrest report. As he got closer, he’s seen holding a semi-automatic weapon and firing at the dog at least four times, cops say.
Billie is then seen picking up what cops say were spent shell casings before fleeing the property on foot. By the time the clinic’s staff got there, they found the dog in a pool of blood with multiple open wounds “consistent with bullet holes,” according to the report.
With the help of the Seminole Police Department, cops found and arrested Billie in his Hollywood home. Once in custody, Billie told cops he was the man in the surveillance video and that he owned the bike found at the crime scene, according to the report.
The dog’s owner is U.S. Army Master Sgt. Daniel Perez, a reservist and a Miami-Dade Fire Rescue employee who has served in the Army for 27 years, Local 10 News reported.
On a Facebook post, the clinic said the dog named Matilda was caged outside because Perez had an agreement with the clinic’s owner to drop off the dog with food and water before going to work as a firefighter.
“This was a special arrangement the owner of the clinic had with his good friend Daniel,” the clinic wrote.
This story was originally published April 5, 2022 at 8:46 PM.
