Dog shooting — Weston County sheriff investigates report of dog being shot in Upton

The Weston County Sheriff’s Office has been handling the investigation into a report that a dog was shot in Upton in late February, but the office has not identified a suspect and law enforcement is still working through details of the event.

Sheriff Bryan Colvard told the News Letter Journal on March 24 that deputies are following up on some leads, but said he has nothing new to share with the public since the NLJ first spoke with him on Feb. 27. 

Colvard said he believes the initial report was made to his office on Feb. 23, and on Feb. 27, after spending about 10 hours on the case, the sheriff reported that it appeared that deputies responded to a report that a dog had been shot and found deceased by the owner, on the owner’s porch.

“Somebody’s willing to shoot somebody’s animal; that’s just about as heinous as anything there is,” he said. 

He said he did not want to share the specific location of the home where the dog was found because deputies “are having to chase rumors” as part of their investigation. 

He said deputies spent considerable time during their investigation talking with people in the area where the dog might have been, and determining if nearby homes or businesses could have captured the incident on security cameras. He said that the office is still hoping to find video footage or a witness, and the office has no evidence that the owner shot the dog, according to Colvard.

The Sheriff’s Office is in charge of the investigation because Upton does not have a full-time on-duty police officer. NLJ was unsuccessful in its attempts to contact Upton Mayor Nick Trandahl. Upton Clerk-Treasurer Kelley Millar did respond to requests for updates on hiring for the police department positions, but told the NLJ on both March 3 and March 13 that she would not comment regarding personnel.

Colvard said that if Upton had police officers, they would be working the case the same way his department has been, noting that some cases are really hard and just take time.

“I wouldn’t say it’s any harder for us working it than it would be (for) any other officer necessarily,” he said. 

Colvard said Upton's government has been “positive and helpful,” and admitted that response time has been the biggest challenge because a responding deputy might be en route from a call on the other side of the county. He said he believes that in the case of the dog-shooting report, it took the deputy “just over 20 minutes” to respond to the scene from where he had been.

The sheriff said his office has been busier with day-to-day service calls recently, such as home inspections, but he doesn’t believe serious calls have necessarily been any “worse or harder or more.” The calls have been spread out sufficiently, according to Colvard.

“If it was one deputy catching all the calls, then that guy would be overwhelmed, but we haven’t been there yet,” he said, noting that there are seven patrol deputies on staff.

Colvard said that he understands citizens may be frustrated to not have a police department in Upton, but reasoned it takes time to hire personnel, especially in law enforcement. He explained that departments have to conduct extensive background checks, and said for the sheriff’s office to hire someone without law enforcement training, it takes nearly a year to hire and train before that person can be sent out on patrol.

“It won’t be any different for them,” he said of Upton.

Colvard asked that anyone who believes they have information about the shooting of the dog call the sheriff’s office at 307-746-4441. They can also call any of the non-emergency numbers to contact dispatch. Reports can remain anonymous, he said.