 Man killed for refusing to fight pit bull
Chicago, IL (US)Date: Jun 25, 2006
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A man who refused to fight his pit bull against another dog was gunned down in his South Side front yard on June 25 as his wife watched, police and relatives said.
Julius Birdine, 26, came to his front fence in the 7800 block of South Ada that Sunday evening to see what was making his pit bull bark so loudly, according to witnesses' accounts to police. There, two men, who also had a pit bull, asked Birdine to allow the dogs to fight. He refused, and one man shot him, police said.
"These other two said, 'My dog can beat your dog up,'' a source said. "The long and the short of it is when he refuses to let his dog engage in any kind of fight, they shoot him.''
Detectives were still searching for a "person of interest,'' the source said. They do not believe Birdine and the men had any kind of history of conflict, although Birdine's mother said the men had approached Birdine in the past about the fighting.
Joyce Hunter, Birdine's mother, said she was stunned to hear her son had been shot.
"To kill a person in cold blood like that. . . . It didn't escalate beyond the dogs. That's what it was all about,'' Hunter, 43, said.
Hunter said her son's wife was standing in the yard with him when the argument started, but he told her to go into the house. Birdine's daughter, 8, was sleeping inside when he was shot.
Birdine, who also has a son, graduated from Robeson High School in 1998, and had worked at Gingiss Formalwear. Last year, he was arrested for drug possession but had pledged to his mother to put that life behind him, she said.
"I would describe him as fair. And he was a family man, and he loved his wife,'' Hunter said.
Hunter said Birdine's wife had contacted the city to have the dog removed.
"We hear this every day that somebody [who's innocent] has been shot down by violence,'' she said. "But it's hit home.'' Neighborhood MapFor more information about the Interactive Animal Cruelty Maps, see the map notes.
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