Pit bull 'died a hero'
Thursday, April 15, 2004 7:39 AM PDT
By Leslie Slape
Printable version
E-mail this articleThe owner of a pit bull who was shot to death by armed intruders said the dog died a hero.
"The dog saved my mom's life," the victim's daughter said Wednesday from her home on Pacific Place in North Kelso.
She declined to speak further, saying the family was shaken by the events of late Tuesday night, when two or three men masked with bandannas and armed with a shotgun tried to push past her mother and enter their home.
Outside, a statue of a little dog bore a sign saying "Go Away." A planter of bright posies lay spilled beside the porch where the intruders knocked it over, the victim's daughter said.
A family friend said the house will be "constantly occupied" from now on.
Kelso police Capt. Vern Thompson said that after the intruders fled, officers arrived and found a large homemade bomb under the front wheel of a car parked in front of the house.
Neighbors were evacuated until after 1 a.m. for their safety, he said.
The Portland Bomb Squad used a remote-control robot to disable the device at the scene, then took it to the lab for processing, Thompson said. Further information about the bomb was unavailable Wednesday.
The victim was too distraught at the time of the incident to provide details such as descriptions of the suspects. Thompson hadn't spoken with detectives as of late Wednesday afternoon, so he didn't have updated details.
Thompson said he didn't know whether the attempted break-in was related to an armed robbery which occurred last week at the Oaks Trailer Park in Longview, but he said the incident "certainly sounds similar."
Victims of the earlier crime told Longview police that two men masked with bandannas broke into their residence with a shotgun at around 4:30 a.m. April 8, ransacked the place and demanded money. They left in a newer dark blue or black Honda Civic.
The victims in the Oaks robbery described the robber holding the shotgun as 5-foot-8, 200 pounds, with dark hair and medium-toned skin. The second robber is 5-foot-10, 150 pounds, with light brown hair and light-toned skin. The man with the gun called the other man "Steve."
No arrests had been made in either case as of Wednesday afternoon.
Thompson said Kelso detectives are continuing to follow leads. Anyone with information is encouraged to call Kelso police at 423-1270 or Crime Stoppers of Cowlitz County at 577-1206.
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