Northeast Tallahassee shooting: Video shows suspect firing at dog in car as kids scream

A Tallahassee man was arrested Sunday after allegedly firing a handgun into a neighbor’s car and shooting and injuring a dog as the children who own the animal watched in horror.

It happened Friday in the 2100 block of Heathrow Drive in Northeast Tallahassee in the Glen at Golden Eagle. Shocking doorbell video footage of the incident, which circulated social media over the weekend, shows a man yelling at a next-door neighbor about a dog biting his child as he approaches a white car in her driveway.

“What are you doing?” she asks before the man opens the rear driver’s side door of the car, raises the gun and fires.

“I don’t give a (expletive),” the man yells over the sounds of crying and screaming children. “That just bit my (expletive) child.”

Two days later, John Pender, 30, was arrested on charges of armed burglary of a conveyance, aggravated animal cruelty and child abuse, according to court records. He is being held without bond in the Leon County Detention Facility.

Javonni Hampton, a spokeswoman for the Leon County Sheriff’s Office, confirmed that Pender is the same person seen in the video. Arrest records with details of the crime were not immediately available.

Abram Dale, whose ex-wife, Kimberly Dale, and their children own the dog, recounted the frightening incident in a GoFundMe. He started the fundraiser to help cover Athena’s veterinarian bills and counseling for three of their four children who saw the shooting.

Dale wrote that Athena has impaired vision and nipped at another child but “did not appear to draw blood.”

“All three children present tried to corral the pup but within seconds a man pulled out a 9mm handgun and fired in a residential neighborhood at their dog,” Dale wrote. “The puppy was corralled into the vehicle and the man opened the door of the vehicle in front of all the children and fired another round into the vehicle. The children rode with their puppy and thank God after thousands of dollars in vet bills and surgery the pup has survived.”

In an interview with the Democrat, Abram said he dropped by the house to pick up his 14-year-old son to go fishing when the shooting happened. Their 7-year-old twin daughters were also present.

He said that after the dog got out, the man shot once at the animal, though it wasn’t clear whether she was struck. Kimberly Dale got the dog into her car when the man approached to fire again, he said.

“He went onto my ex-wife’s property, as you can see in the video, he opened the door and shot the dog right in front of my kids,” Abrams said.

Abrams said the family has hired Tallahassee attorneys William Gautier Kitchen and Marie Mattox to represent them. He said he couldn’t comment on whether they plan to file a lawsuit against Pender.

Dale said he’s “very concerned” about how the shooting will impact the mental health of his children. On Sunday, they screamed their dog’s name after a motorcycle drove by and backfired, making a gunfire like sound.

“As you can imagine, this is traumatizing to them,” he said in the GoFundMe. “We are likely going to need counseling for all involved.”

Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or 850-599-2180.

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