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A grand jury returned 4 charges versus the owner of 2 harmful dogs who killed an elderly man and hurt his better half previously this year.
Bexar County District Attorney Joe Gonzales revealed the charges together with the family of 81-year-old Ramon Najera, who was killed in the attack, and Juanita Najera, who made it through.
The indictments consisted of 2 charges each versus Christian Alexander Moreno and his better half Abilene Schneider: a 2nd degree felony of harmful dog attack triggering death and injury to the elderly triggering physical injury.
Raymond Najera, the kid of Ramon Najera, said the indictments are the primary step of responsibility. He thanked police and district attorneys “in taking this loss of our father’s life and injuries to my stepmom and turning it into a beacon of hope, and making this tragedy a turning point in our community to make our city a safe place to live.”
Gonzales said the indictments are a notification to the general public at big.
“If you’re going to maintain a vicious animal, if you’re going to own a vicious dog, you have an obligation to do everything to secure that dog on you premises.”
The attack on Feb. 24 highlighted the difficulties San Antonians confront with harmful and loose dogs. The dogs were explained by authorities as American Staffordshire Terriers and were euthanized soon after the event.
It likewise activated proposed legislation throughout the 84th Legislature however was eventually banned by Gov. Greg Abbott.
HB 4759 submitted by State Rep. Elizabeth Campos of Bexar County would have eliminated the affidavit requirement.
In his veto pronouncement on June 16, Abbott said the costs would overcriminalize the procedure.
“Texas’s existing criminal laws penalize attacks by dangerous dogs — so much so that felony arrests have already been made of the dog owners responsible for the tragic attack that took the life of a distinguished Air Force veteran in San Antonio, and that was the catalyst for House Bill No. 4759. The justice system should be allowed to work without the overcriminalization found in this bill,” the pronouncement read.
Campos, who was at Thursday’s DA interview, said she prepares to refile it in a future legal session.
“We were going to try to eliminate the affidavit, so that if there is a vicious dog, Animal Care Services would get involved and acknowledge there was a vicious dog and let the local authorities handle it. The bill was not just about the criminal penalty — there was more to it,” she said.
San Antonio’s Animal Care Services remains in the lasts of the 2024 budget plan procedure, that includes a 26% budget plan boost for next year and would consist of extra officers to examine harmful dogs.
Moreno and Schneider have actually because both bonded out of prison and will now wait for trial.
