Police in Fairfax County, Virginia, have charged a man with animal cruelty and firing a weapon near a school after he fatally shot a dog.
The shooting happened in a Centreville apartment complex courtyard near a playground on Connor Drive — just south of Interstate 66 — after 9:30 a.m. Friday.
Lt. Dan Spital, of the Fairfax County police, said Friday afternoon that the shooting was the result of an altercation between two men who lived in the community, “both of whom had their own dogs with them.”
A release from the Fairfax County Police Department identified the shooter as 33-year-old Roman Vyacheslavov Gorelov. Gorelov, police said, shot the dog, followed the owner and his dog into a breezeway and proceeded to shoot the dog “several more times.”
The owner of the two-year-old Labrador-Beagle mix, Spital said, moved to a public area with a playground, not knowing that the shooter was following them. The shooter retreated to a building in the complex with the gun. Witnesses directed police to the building and the man surrendered.
The dog was taken to a veterinarian but died, according to police.
Spital said the two men “have known each other in the past,” but investigators are still trying to figure out the extent of their history. He added that neither dog committed “any type of aggressive act.”
Gorelov was charged with animal cruelty and reckless discharge of a firearm with 1,000 feet of a school and is held without bond. Initially, the department sought three felony charges: animal cruelty, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, and discharge of a firearm.
There was no school on Friday, but no children were at the playground, perhaps thanks to the rainy weather — which Spital called a lucky break.
“We’re fortunate no one else was hit by these bullets,” he said, adding that the incident created “a scary situation in this community.”
WTOP’s Ivy Lyons contributed to this report.
