Casper Police Arrest Man for Attacking Dog With Knife
Casper police on Tuesday arrested a man after he allegedly used a knife to attack a woman's dog.
Taj Dubray Eaglefeathers, 26, was booked into jail on recommended charges of aggravated cruelty to animals and interference. He will likely make his initial appearance in Natrona County Circuit Court at 2 p.m.
Charging documents say police officers were dispatched to the 1800 block of East First Street in Casper for a reported weapons offense shortly before 4:30 p.m. The woman who called police said someone had stabbed her dog, and described a Native American man who had left eastbound on First Street.
The first officer who arrived in the area saw Eaglefeathers walking north about two and a half blocks east of the dog owner's house, but the officer did not immediately stop Eaglefeathers as he did not fully match the description given.
About a minute later, another officer responding to the area saw Eaglefeathers run from him. Eaglefeathers was handcuffed, and police found his hands were "covered with blood." Police also found a large knife in a brown leather sheath, which was laying on the ground beneath a vehicle which Eaglefeathers had walked past.
The owner of the dog told officers she had been watering her lawn when she heard her dog, Smokey, barking. She turned around and saw a tall, thin Native American man leaning over her fence and stabbing at her dog with a large knife.
The woman said that she asked the man why he was stabbing her dog, and he reportedly replied that he was a native, he owned the land, and the dog shouldn't be barking at him.
Officers noted a half-inch cut on the right side of the dog's nose, near its right eye. The dog's owner wasn't positive that Eaglefeathers was the man she had seen, but she did recognize the backpack he had been wearing and said the knife looked similar.
Eaglefeathers was booked into jail, where police say he became combative and started yelling that the land belonged to him and officers had no right to detain him.
In the area where the attack took place, an officer found a black and silver folding knife.
A book-in photo of Eaglefeathers was not available from the Casper police department Wednesday morning.