With two high-powered rifles in the back of their car, two men drove their victims to a desolate dirt road at the edge of a wooded area of Cape Cod. Then, police said, Todd A. Soderberg and Keith B. Kynock let their victims go, watching them flee for safety, 40 feet, then 50 feet down the road, before the two lowered their rifles and opened fire. After allegedly firing 37 rounds, their victims lay dead, their bodies shattered from the rifle blasts.
The victims were a brother and sister, 2-year-olds named Caesar and Hennessey. They were amber-colored pit bulls, and the shootings horrified animal lovers.
Police said that Kynock had just taken ownership of the pit bulls this week, but then decided he wanted them dead after they started fighting with his other dog, a pit bull he had owned for some time. Authorities said he allegedly enlisted Soderberg, his friend, to help him execute the dogs and end the fighting once and for all. While Soderberg and Kynock were arraigned yesterday in Barnstable District Court, outrage on the Cape was intense.
``Everyone's initial reaction was shock and horror," said Carmine DiCenso , manager of the MSPCA Animal Care and Adoption Center in Osterville. ``We see many pit bulls and most are lovely, great animals."
Kynock, 26, a delivery truck driver from Barnstable, and Soderberg, 26, a forklift operator and former Marine from Sandwich, pleaded not guilty yesterday to two charges each of killing an animal and animal cruelty. Kynock was also charged with carrying a dangerous weapon, failure to report a lost firearm, and leaving a firearm in a vehicle, and Soderberg with carrying a firearm without a license. Kynock was ordered to surrender his guns to police and was released on $2,500 bail. Soderberg was released on $1,000 bail.
Their families declined to comment, when reached by phone. Tara Miltimore , an assistant district attorney prosecuting the case, said killing an animal is a felony in Massachusetts, punishable by up to 5 years in prison.
DiCenso said cases of owners shooting healthy pets are quite rare.``These were perfect healthy animals that could have been given a chance to be put through adoption," DiCenso said.
Up until May 30 2006, Caesar and Hennessey, muscular, purebred pit bulls, apparently lived happily with their original owner, Guy Nelson, 50, a stonemason from Hyannis. They romped in his house, played with his daughter, and bounded on his bed. ``My dogs would literally jump off the ground and kiss me and lick me -- that's the kind of thing I'm thinking about now," Nelson said yesterday. ``You need to have one to understand how loyal and beautiful they are, and I'm broken-hearted."
But that morning, Nelson said, he was forced to give up the dogs when he moved into an apartment, where pets are forbidden. Reluctantly, he handed over the animals to Kynock, feeling certain they would be cared for well by a friend and fellow pit bull owner whom he knew from Cape building circles. "It was one of the hardest decisions of my life, but I thought as long as they had a nice home, we need to move on," Nelson said. "We had to make a choice: Either they live right or we don'tPolice said the arrangement didn't last long. Later that same day, Caesar and Hennessey began fighting with Kynock's other pit bull, biting and barking ferociously, according to Barnstable Police Sergeant Sean Sweeney . Kynock called Nelson, who told Kynock to give the dogs more time to bond. But Kynock turned instead to Soderberg, and by nightfall the dogs were dead.
Early that night, police said, Kynock and Soderberg loaded two AR-15 rifles into a truck, put Caesar and Hennessey in the back, and drove to a lonely service road in the Marston Mills section of Barnstable. Once there, they parked, let the dogs scamper out and, as the animals bounded away, according to police, the two men shot them dead, in a bloody scene where investigators would later recover dozens of shell casings.
"This was just gruesome, it was absolutely gruesome," said Charles Lewis, Centerville senior animal control officer.
The next morning, a couple walking their dog in the woods stumbled upon the bodies and called police, Sweeney said. And, according to court documents, Soderberg had been telling fellow employees at Shepley Wood Products in Hyannis that he had recently beaten pit bulls and put them in the back of a truck. Later, questioned by police, Soderberg showed a bite mark on his leg and, according to court documents, said, "The [expletive] thing bit me on the leg!"
Soderberg was arrested on the night of June 1 night and Kynock on the morning of June 2. In a search of Kynock's car, an Audi, police said they seized a .40-caliber Glock handgun, brass knuckles, a black ski mask, rubber gloves, a bolt cutter, and a police scanner. Sweeney said he was not sure what the items were intended for. Case UpdatesThe slain dogs were discovered nearly a month ago, a pair of pit bulls riddled by rifle spray on a dirt road.
The Barnstable police called the shooting an ''execution.'' Within two days, they arrested a pair of 26-year-old Cape men they say drove the two dogs to a wooded area near the West Barnstable firing range, released them from the trunk of a car and opened fire.
The brutality of the crime has stirred the passions of various animal advocacy groups and concerned citizens who want to see prosecutors pursue the case against the two men as aggressively as possible.
Keith Kynock of Cotuit and Todd Soderberg of Forestdale will appear in court for a pretrial hearing July 11. In addition to various weapons charges, each man faces two counts of maliciously killing a domestic animal and two counts of animal cruelty.
Both men pleaded not guilty to all charges at their arraignments, despite an admission by Soderberg to police that he and Kynock had killed the animals. Both were released on bail - Kynock at $2,500 and Soderberg at $1,000.
''I have received numerous faxes and letters,'' Cape and Islands Assistant District Attorney Tara Miltimore said yesterday. ''Everyone's urging us to prosecute this to the fullest extent.''
Before the court date, Miltimore's office will receive a petition with more than 6,000 signatures asking the district attorney's office to seek the maximum punishment under state law.
Anita Solomon of West Palm Beach, Fla., is overseeing the online petition drive, which will end July 5 so she has enough time to tally the signatures and comments and ship them to prosecutors.
''This was just a case of pure, premeditated, let's have some fun and use these dogs as target practice,'' Solomon said yesterday.
Solomon initially learned of the shooting through the Web site www.Pet-Abuse.com, which offers a database of animal abuse stories from across the country. She was struck, in part, by the police discovery of a ski mask, bolt cutters and rubber gloves in Kynock's car.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals also sent Miltimore a letter, requesting her office to require psychological testing and mandatory counseling for both suspects if they are convicted of the crime.
''Anyone who would raise a violent hand or a rifle at a defenseless 30- or 40-pound creature is probably sick enough to do much worse to any human they get angry with,'' said Dan Paden, the PETA researcher who wrote Miltimore.
The animal cruelty laws in Massachusetts were toughened in November 2004, in part after a study by Northeastern University and the MSPCA found, among other connections, that a person who commits a violent crime against an animal is five times more likely to commit a violent crime against a person.
Before the Legislature updated the law, an animal cruelty charge in Massachusetts was considered a misdemeanor. It's now a felony, punishable by up to five years in state prison and a $2,500 fine.
Letter writing to prosecutors has become common among animal rights advocates, according to Scott Giacoppo, a spokesman for the MSPCA.
''The laws can only be so strong,'' Giacoppo said yesterday. ''That's why there's a sense of need for members of the public to write in.''
Guy and Latoya Nelson, the father and daughter who raised the two pit bulls that were killed, will closely track the case against Kynock and Soderberg.
The Nelsons were forced to give up the dogs when they moved into a new apartment that did not allow the animals. Kynock, a former acquaintance of Guy Nelson's, already owned a pit bull that in the past had played with the Nelsons' two dogs.
Less than 10 hours after Kynock took the dogs, police say he enlisted Soderberg to help him kill them when it was clear the three animals would not get along.
''I think they should use them as examples,'' Latoya Nelson said yesterday. ''What they did is terrible. We really feel that they should have to suffer like our dogs did.'' | Source: Cape Cod Times - June 27, 2006
Update posted on Jun 30, 2006 - 1:41AM |
Bullets killed three pit bulls in two separate incidents in Barnstable last week. Two were slain in a hail of bullets near the town�s shooting range in West Barnstable and the third by police in a raid aimed at arresting a 16-year-old.
Thirty-seven shell casings from AR-15 semi-automatic rifles were found at the scene.
The shooting started from about 40 feet away, according to Sweeney, but the blood trail and final position of the dogs some 60 feet beyond there indicated that the shooting were not defensive actions on the part of the shooters. In addition to the 29 shells recovered from the primary shooting area, Sweeney said an additional eight were found close to the dogs.
The dogs were identified by their former owner�s daughter when photos of their bodies were published in the Cape Cod Times. The owner, who was moving and could not take the dogs with him, had asked Keith Kynock, 26, of Cotuit, who owns one pit bull, to take them. From information provided by the former owner, Kynock was brought in for questioning, Sweeney said.
Kynock acknowledged that he had possession of the dogs, but told police they�d gotten away, according to Sweeney.
He also acknowledged that he had two AR-15s, for which he is licensed through the Barnstable Police, as well as a third weapon in the vehicle he drove to the police station. Kynock agreed to allow the officers to search the vehicle. A loaded 40-caliber handgun was found, as were brass knuckles, a black ski mask, gloves, bolt cutters, duct tape and a police scanner.
Possession of brass knuckles is a felony in Massachusetts, and he was arrested and booked on that charge, but was later released with no additional information forthcoming on the dogs.
Additional information about a second person possibly involved in the shooting resulted in the questioning and subsequent arrest of Todd Soderberg, 26, of Forestdale. Sweeney said Soderberg eventually told police of his involvement and identified Kynock as the other participant.
Both were arrested on charges of maliciously killing domestic animals, animal cruelty and weapons violations.
Both pleaded not guilty and were released after posting bail. | Source: Barnestable Patriot - June 9, 2006
Update posted on Jun 15, 2006 - 12:02AM |
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