CHESTERFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Police were still working to find out who’s responsible for shooting and killing a family’s beloved dog near their Chesterfield Township home.
On the morning of Saturday, Dec. 23, a family’s dog Stella -- a pit bull/husky mix -- was shot in the chest. The dog’s owner, Chelsea Young, said their wounded Stella made her way back home near 24 Mile and Walnut Drive, where she would spend her final minutes.
The family is absolutely devastated.
When her husband called her to tell her what happened, the dog’s owner, Chelsea Young, said she dropped to the ground.
“I just went numb, because how could somebody do this to my family before Christmas?” Young said.
The family described the dog as kind, gentle and loving, saying she “loved everybody.”
Young told Local 4 that her husband was home when Stella came limping up to their back porch. The 2-and-a-half-year-old dog had been shot in the lungs.
The family believes the shooting happened in or near their unfenced yard.
“It was here,” Young said. “She would have not gotten far; she wouldn’t have made it home to be with us in those last final moments.”
Aside from losing a beloved pet, the unsolved shooting has robbed the family of their sense of safety in and around their home.
“I’m scared. I am overwhelmed,” Young said. “The person who did this has taken away my home from not just me, but [also] my children.”
Young says the neighbors are heartbroken and scared, just like her family is. They are relying on the police to find the person responsible. No arrests had been knowingly made as of Thursday morning.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Chesterfield Township Police Detective Walsh at 586-949-3657.