This video is from February 1, after a man was found dead with wounds consistent with dog bites.
Criminal Charges Filed
Longview, TX - A man with a lengthy criminal history has been arrested in connection to a man found dead with wounds consistent with dog bites on February 1, according to police. Martin Gilbert Rodriguez, 56, of Longview, was charged with attack by dog causing death under the Texas felony dog attack law. The 46-year old victim has been identified as Kenneth Pierson. The arrest follows an autopsy report from the Forensic Medical Management Services that was returned to police.
Rodriguez remains in the Gregg County Jail; bond has not yet been set. He has been in jail since February 1 for multiple animal-related offenses and other charges, including: 28 counts of animal at large, 2 counts of animal unvaccinated, 5 counts of failure to maintain financial responsibility, 4 counts of no driver’s license, speeding, and animal illegally kept in a parked or standing vehicle. Rodriguez lives close to where Pierson was found dead in a roadway with wounds consistent with dog bites.
The Fatal Dog Biting Incident
At about 3:00 am, Longview police officers responded to a call for a bicycle in the roadway in the 2500 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Arriving officers found the bicycle and then discovered the deceased man with dog bite wounds. Animal control officers and police confiscated multiple dogs from a nearby residence, as an investigation into his death got underway. Residents complained then that the dogs had been an issue for some time, wondering, "Why wasn’t something done sooner?"
Longview NAACP former president and community member Branden Johnson told CBS 19 that police had been contacted about the dogs at least six times and that two of his friends were attacked by the dogs. Johnson said that more needed to be done to protect everyone in the community. "At least if not fairly and equally, with equity. And when there’s something going on, everybody gets treated how they’re supposed to be treated. And there’s no difference, or indifference," Johnson said.
Habitual Animal Violations Offender
In 2019, Rodriguez faced similar charges: 3 counts of animal at large and 3 counts of animal unvaccinated. In 2021, charges escalated to the felony statute. Rodriguez pleaded guilty to 1 count of attack by dog causing serious bodily injury. The sentence was suspended 5 years and the remainder was probated. In early February, city officials said that animal control officers had issued almost 50 citations since 2019 in cases directly related to the dogs seized from the property on February 1.
Now that Rodriguez has used up the Court's leniency after the 2021 serious bodily injury case, he faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted under the state statute. It is troubling that he continued being a reckless dog owner after the 2019 and 2021 charges. The worst possible outcome of his behavior occurred on February 1 when his dogs killed a man. Certainly, the city should be considering a habitual offender ordinance that prohibits people like Rodriguez from owning any animals.
East Texas man faces charges after man found dead with wounds consistent with dog bites.
Related articles:
06/21/23: 2023 Dog Bite Fatality: Man Walking Down Road in Rockport, Texas Brutally Killed by Dogs
08/26/23: 2022 Dog Bite Fatality: Dogs Suspected in Man's Death in Channelview, Harris County
Law enforcement departments across the United States should release consistent "baseline" information to the media and the public after each fatal dog mauling, including these items.
It’s really too bad that someone has to be murdered in one of the worst ways possible before the owner is punished and the dogs confiscated.
Speaking as a longtime bicyclist, loose dogs scare the [bleep] out of me.
Earlier this year, I was chased by a loose pit bull here in Tucson, and let’s just say that I still avoid that street.
It’s far worse to be disabled & using a wheelchair! Thankfully I’ve avoided being attacked, once at the cost to a dog who was attacked in my place. He was a big dog and he didn’t die but it still seemed to be traumatic for him! I don’t think the owner would have responded as quickly if I didn’t start spaying his dog with a giant can of bear spray I had with me due to other close calls. My little lab wouldn’t stand a chance. He’s a wonderful service dog but he would probably roll over & be killed! So I make my daughter or son walk with us & I still have a giant can of “illegal” bear spray. At least the animal control tried to tell me that, but my kids go camping in Montana where they have run into grizzlies. I believe that the grizzly I had to use it on was not as stupid as the pit bull because the bear went the other way! The owner had to stop the dog! I honestly have to say that I believe pit bulls are more dangerous than any wildlife I’ve ever ran across & I lived a few miles from Glacier National Park during most of my childhood. I’ve had some pretty close encounters with wild cats which were actually the most frightening, especially when you’re a little kid being stared down by a mountain lion! But even it decided to run away after a few minutes. I lived in Alaska as a teenager & there I had a close call with a big bull moose but again it decided not to attack however the pit bulls I’ve met with in the city streets of CA seem to be the most dangerous animals after a lifetime of living in the wilderness! I’ve had bears come inside the house, which was my own fault for not cleaning up after dinner but even then that smallish brown bear essentially scared itself away! Not the pit bulls though!
The fellow in the video that says “If this was XXX neighbourhood, this wouldn’t have been allowed”–is right on the money.
While posh neighbourhoods often have the odd pitbull living there due to the cult nature of deluded breed supporters–those people also tend to have the money to contain them securely, pay for training, aren’t generally breeding them or have a whole pack.
Yet, THEY are the people who are the biggest problem in this because they are the ones with the financial clout to back all this pit nuttery. They are the ones donating to the shelters, shelling out for legal fees to “save” some murderous monster from its deserved demise, etc etc.
It’s frequently the impoverished neighbourhoods paying in lives for the immoral pitbull delusions of those who live in grander style.
You can bet that any pitnutter living next to a highfalutin’ lawyer would get slammed by AC on each and every offense.
Boni, so well said. It cannot be ignored that is not a “privileged” area or neighborhood. These folks are at the mercy of limited services. These neighborhoods often have highways running through them, factories and pig farms spewing noxious fumes or whatever. Hence, higher rates of cancer and various other maladies. Poorer places are also often plagued by roaming pits and pit mixes. On my high income island, I see mostly fit, wealthy women in expensive yoga pants parading their precious “rescue” pits. We have no reports of pits killing humans here…YET. These are the folks that give massive amounts of money to our county no-kill shelter. (ONE contribution last year was for $1,000,000…yes, that many zeros.) These are the folks who spread pit propaganda and misinformation. I’m confident to say, they’ve probably never been on this site.
I disagree.
San Francisco is a high dollar neighborhood yet pits have been allowed to maul people there.
When someone’s pit detonates in your high dollar neighborhood nothing will be done about it.
It will be a “tragic accident” just like when it happens in the ghetto or when it happens in white trash “fly over county”.
Rich and poor, white and black, we are all considered acceptable collateral damage in the maulocaust.
Dogs are considered to be worth more than any of us.
Look at last year or last decade’s fatalities.
Further more if animal control were to crack town the same NAACP would throw a fit if “colored people” (I am using their term) were disproportionately effected by the crack down.
San Fransisco from what I’ve been reading–isn’t high dollar any more. It’s been run into the ground. A decade or two ago you may have been correct on that point.
If it hadn’t…there’d be no reason to sweep out thousands of unhoused to accommodate a Chinese state visit.
Not saying it *never* happens in high-dollar neighbourhoods–I’m saying it’s less likely and that impoverished neighbourhoods are dumping grounds for the pit menace. Most underprivileged folks get their dogs from rescues/shelters or their pit-breeding neighbours. They don’t have 4k to pay for a poodle or Goldie.
It’s not just the USA, either.
I live in San Francisco. There aren’t unattended dogs running around that I am aware of. There are too many dogs, imo (and too many off leash, and too many in stores).
Most of SF is nice and it is a beautiful city, but there are blighted areas. The US Supreme Court will hear arguments and hopefully issue a ruling by the end of June that will empower governments to remove tents from public property. The pitbull remains the street person’s dog of choice.
You’re correct it’s all over the place! I really see more pit bulls when I go into SF than out in my more affluent neighborhood but there’s a pit bull that would jump onto the roof of a shed a few inches from his fence & he could have easily came over until my daughter whose married to one of those Berkeley lawyers got smart & called the city zoning department to see if they had the proper permits for their shed! The dog & the shed are both gone now! She also left them printouts of dog mauling & a few neighbors with children started calling animal control on them whenever that dog was on their illegal shed! So I believe you’re mistaken about the problem with pit bulls. There are crazy people who have pit bulls of every race, every income level & every age. The only thing they all have in common is how ignorant they are!
Prolly could have housed every homeless person on your island or fed a lot of impoverished children there for a million dollars. That’s a free lunch program for a whole year. Spent on keeping dangerous dogs, alive. Also…charitable tax dodge.
Talk about effed-up priorities.
And these are the people “leading our nations”.
This exemplifies why, if you are attacked by a dog, you MUST be prepared to END that dog right then and there.
The 50 citations bit is just gobsmacking.
Then the police/AC will say, “But we need more money” to which my answer is, “You aren’t even attempting to do the job with the money you HAVE.”
Now either the guy was over-cited as a form of harassment or collecting fines quotas (possible) or he really was that much of a known menace(likely, given the outcome)–in which case, what is wrong with the police and animal control, there?
Colleen: I’m with ya on that “Why was he not barred from owning animals?”