MORGAN — Sheriff’s deputies arrested a man Monday on suspicion of shooting a dog and firing several shots in the direction of a neighboring home and city park.
Michael Ingle, 79, told deputies the dog, a poodle or poodle mix, was in his yard and had killed one of the feral cats on his property, Morgan County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Craig Tillet said Tuesday.
The dog was critically wounded, but a neighbor saw the incident and put the animal in a wheelbarrow, Tillet said. The pooch was rushed to a veterinarian for emergency surgery.
“They gave him a blood transfusion,” Tillet said, adding that the bullet, likely a .22 caliber round, nicked an artery. The bullet is lodged in the dog but will not be removed until the animal is well enough, he said.
Ingle was booked into the Weber County Jail in Ogden and later bailed out. He is suspected of two third-degree felony counts of felony discharge of a firearm, six counts of class B misdemeanor discharge of a firearm and a class B misdemeanor charge of animal cruelty. An arrest affidavit said the shots Ingle allegedly fired were in the direction of a neighboring house with two people inside and a nearby park and public walkway.
Formal charges had not been filed by Tuesday and Ingle had no attorney of record.
“He claimed the dog was in his yard and had killed a cat,” Tillet said. No dead cat was found.
The poodle and another dog had escaped from another house in the neighborhood and one was caught soon after, Tillet said.
He said Ingle had been suspected of shooting a dog in an earlier case but no charges were filed.
According to 2nd District Court records, Ingle pleaded guilty in 2019 to misdemeanor conduct disorderly after allegedly threatening a man with an air rifle. A police probable cause statement alleged that Ingle drove close to a man shoveling snow and sprayed him with road slush. The man threw snow at Ingle’s vehicle and Ingle got out with the rifle.
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