AYNOR, SC (WBTW) – A family in Aynor is grieving after they say their neighbor shot and killed their 11-month-old lab named ‘Champ’ on New Year’s Day.
“It was traumatizing,” Tristan Miller, one of the owners of the dog said of the incident.
Miller says her son was outside with Champ doing work; her son went inside the house to get something, and when he came back outside, Champ was gone.
According to an Horry County police report, a neighbor told officers he shot the dog because it was growling and showing its teeth; he said he was in fear for his and his two childrens’ lives.
However, Miller says Champ was never aggressive, especially when he played with her two young grandchildren, both two-years-old.
“All the other neighbors came out of the house and everybody was upset about it. He was a good dog, and everybody liked him,” Miller said. “He was a great dog. Everybody who knew him said he was like a Scooby Doo dog because he would turn his head like he knew what you were talking about; sometimes he’d look at you like you were crazy.”
When Miller found Champ after he was shot, she said his collar was broken and there were trails of blood on the ground.
“He was shot on the side of the head. He was trying to get away. The neighbors that saw it happen said that he was trying to get loose to come back home when he heard (my son) call,” Miller said.
The Horry County police officer who responded to the scene wrote in the incident report that he did not suspect any crime was committed.
