FLINT (WWJ) – A Flint man with a violent criminal past is facing charges after allegedly stabbing a dog to death and attempting to fight a deputy inside the Genesee County Jail.
Terry Louis Key II has been charged with first-degree animal abuse/torture, resisting and obstructing police and malicious destruction of property. The 36-year-old is being held in jail, according to Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson.
The charges stem from the stabbing of a dog that was caught on a neighbor’s Ring doorbell camera. WWJ has elected to not publish the graphic video, but it was shared on the sheriff’s office’s Facebook page.
Key was involved in a violent domestic encounter, according to Swanson. Key allegedly believed his neighbor across the street was responsible for the third party encounter and went to confront her on Oct. 26.
When Key showed up, the neighbor wasn’t home, but her 3-year-old pitbull was outside on a leash, Swanson said. Video shows him pick the dog up by the leash and stab it 20 times and leave it to bleed to death.
“This dog had nothing to do with the conflict, it wasn’t a problem, it didn’t bite anybody,” Swanson said.
An hour after the attack, Key allegedly went back to the house to again confront the woman, who had since returned home and discovered her dog had been killed. The woman barricaded herself inside and called 911.
“She did answer the door, she already knew her dog was dead, and he went to do the same thing to her and walked away,” Swanson said.
The sheriff’s department spent the next several days searching for Key, and he knew they were looking for him, according to Swanson.
On Monday, Key showed up at the Genesee County Jail and confronted a deputy who was in the lobby to get a pop from the vending machine.
When the deputy, who works at the jail, not as a police officer, asked Key what he needed, the suspect “started a verbal engagement” and took a fighting stance against the deputy in the jail lobby.
Key was arrested after the fight went to the ground. While being interviewed, Key “wigged out again,” according to Swanson, and threw chairs everywhere.
After being charged, Key is being held in jail.
Key’s criminal past includes 15 arrests and multiple convictions for sexual assault, aggravated assault, domestic violence, assaulting a police officer, and resisting and obstructing. Swanson noted Key is on the sex offender registry.
The sheriff said there is often a “direct connect between those that abuse, torture, neglect and fight animals to those that do the same thing to humans, to children, to the vulnerable.” He claimed six out of 10 mass shooters have a history of torturing animals.
“When you have that violent act against a companion animal, there are stats and studies, and we have seen it live, that they are eventually, if not already doing it to an individual,” Swanson said.
More on today's top stories:
Related
Related
