Dog killed in home; teen suspected

The Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the shooting death of a dog Wednesday at private residence in the Crystal River Valley where a man came home and discovered his young yellow lab lying in a pool of blood in the family living room.

Surveillance video from the family’s property indicated that two shots were fired. The first was a misfire from a revolver and the second one, which was fatal, came from a .22 rifle, resident and dog owner Tom Friel said Thursday.

“I cannot confirm we have a suspect,” said Bruce Benjamin, juvenile investigator for the Sheriff’s Office. “It’s just too early.”

But Friel and his wife, Kirsten Pamp-Friel, who live with their 7-year-old daughter in the 7 Oaks subdivision off Highway 133, said authorities told them a juvenile suspect was arrested Wednesday night and is in the custody of Mesa County.

The two said authorities told them a 13-year-old boy was wanted by police earlier that day after he fled from Garfield County Court, where he was due on unrelated charges.

While on the run, he broke into a house and stole a revolver and rifle, before hitchiking along Highway 133, where a driver picked him up and dropped him off in the vicinity of the 7 Oaks Road subdivision near the BRB Crystal River Resort, Friel said he was told.

Benjamin, without speaking about the incident in question, said the shooting death of a dog likely would rise to the level of a felony charge.