Owner wants answers in death of two Great Danes

Chris Monteiro said he shot the dogs to protect himself and children in the area.

A photo of Epic and Samson, the two Harlequin Great Danes shot to death on Aug. 12.

Courtesy of the Tencza family
Last Modified: Wednesday, September 1, 2010 at 9:20 a.m.

Samson and Epic would have been 5 years old had they lived until Oct. 12.

But the two Great Dane siblings were shot last month less than a mile from their home, one dying at the scene and the other before the day was over on the table of an emergency animal clinic.

Their owner, Holli Tencza, and a group of Great Dane owners are hosting a vigil at 7:30 p.m. Thursday on Ocala's downtown square. The public is invited to attend and to bring their own pets.

"We just want to remember them," said a weeping 35-year-old Tencza when she spoke with the Star-Banner on Tuesday. "And we want to raise awareness for animal rights, and that we don't feel what happened was justified."

What happened depends on who you ask.

What most people agree on is that at about 3 p.m. on Aug. 12, Samson, a male Great Dane, and Epic, a female, slipped through their owner's yard when one of the family members accidentally left open a gate at their Pecan Drive Court home in Silver Springs Shores.

The dogs made their way northeast almost a mile to Redwood Run Lane.

Between 5 and 5:30 p.m., Chris Monteiro fired two rounds from his Glock 9 mm pistol into Epic, striking the animal once in the back and once in the left side of the neck. Wounded, the animal managed to get to a wooded lot near Monteiro's home and died soon later.

What's also known from veterinary and Marion County Sheriff's reports is that Samson, the larger of the two dogs, was shot once in the nasal passage, after which the bullet lodged into the back of his neck. The dog was found 20 feet from Epic, but still alive.

Samson was first taken to Marion County's Animal Control center and then to an emergency veterinary clinic. By 10 p.m. Samson's heart gave out and he died.



"And if I can't get 'em out of here I'm gonna shoot one of them," he told the operator, according to 911 transcripts.


But he didn't stay inside. According to a statement he gave sheriff's deputies and the Star-Banner, he went inside and came out again, but this time armed with the pistol. He continued to work on his car.

He told investigators and the Star-Banner that he heard children playing next door and went outside to see where the dogs were.

He said he saw the dogs heading toward the playing children and yelled for their mother to put the children inside the house and that he had already been attacked by the animals. He told the Star-Banner that the dogs changed direction and charged toward him. He said he was standing in his yard when the animals headed his way, and that he shot both when they reached the edge of his yard about 10 feet away.

"The dogs were full-on attacking me," said the 32-year-old Monteiro.

Law enforcement investigators found blood at the edge of Monteiro's yard and the street, according to the deputy's report. Law enforcement investigators determined that Monteiro had acted reasonably and that he thought he was in danger.

But Tencza's lawyer and at least one neighbor tell a different story.

Kim Dethloff said that there were no children playing outside during the shooting. She said the children Monteiro referred to were at a neighbor's home in a screened-in porch area and that she was there visiting the neighbor and saw the children and dogs.

Monteiro told the 911 operator during a second 911 call after shooting the dogs that "[the dogs] were chasing the kids down the street."

But before the shooting, Dethloff said the dogs left the neighbor's yard and ran in Monteiro's direction, but not directly toward Monteiro.

Dethloff said Monteiro stepped out onto the street and shot the dogs well before they reached his yard.

"They [the dogs] were nowhere near him. They were running toward the field," she told the Star-Banner on Tuesday.

She said the children weren't outside playing and the dogs were never a threat to the children.

"He is lying through his teeth," she said of Monteiro. "There was no reason to shoot the dogs."

She said the dogs were not aggressive and hadn't bothered anyone.

Tencza's lawyer, Fred Kray, said he also spoke with other witnesses who told him a similar story and that the dogs weren't in Monteiro's yard and that Monteiro was in the road.

Kray said that by Monteiro defying the 911 operator's direction to stay inside, by getting his gun, by claiming there were children outside playing contrary to what witnesses say, and by stepping onto the road, his intent all along was to kill the dogs. Kray said that when the dogs ran in his direction, that was excuse enough Monteiro thought he needed to start shooting.

Kray met with the State Attorney's Office on Tuesday and is trying to get Monteiro prosecuted. Kray said that if Monteiro isn't prosecuted, Tencza will sue Monteiro for the value of the two dogs, about $2,800, and for the pain the shooting has caused her and her family.

Kray also said that he can prove through witness testimony that Epic, the female dog shot twice, had already turned and tried to get away when Monteiro shot her. He said that witnesses told him Monteiro walked even further into the road to get better aim at the second fleeing dog before shooting.

Necropsy photos and reports obtained by the Star-Banner showed one shot entered Epic's back and exited the dog's stomach area. The photos also show where the dog was shot on the side of the neck. Kray said those wounds were not consistent with a dog charging someone.

The sheriff's report did not say where the bullet casings were found or if they were found at all.

Neighbor Larry Allread also said the dogs probably would have left on their own if Monteiro had stayed inside.

Allread said he had two encounters with the dogs: once when they chased him into his pool area and once when they went into his garage as he was cooking on a grill.

"They got about 10 feet of me growling and their hair standing up," he said.

Allread said he didn't see the shooting, but that it could have been avoided.

"(Monteiro) just should have used better judgment," he said. "But I don't blame him though."

The first sign of trouble for Tencza was when the owner saw sheriff's cruisers and people standing in the road where the dogs were shot. She was first told both dogs were dead. Tencza, friends and neighbors had been looking for the two dogs since they escaped.

She said she was never concerned the dogs would be violent, but rather they would be hit by a car or stolen.

She said both dogs had received the American Kennel Club certificates for being well behaved and that the dogs were also used to help train other Great Danes.

"They were having a ball, running and having the time of their lives," she said. "They had never been out before (without a leash)."

She also said her veterinarian told her the dogs were so dehydrated before they were shot that they wouldn't have had the energy to run or attack anyone.

Tencza said that to put this issue of Samson and Epic to rest, she wants to know how they died.

"I really want to know what happened," she said, weeping. "I just want to know what happened to my dogs."

Contact Fred Hiers at fred.hiers@starbanner.com or 867-4157.


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