Upset that his dog "made a mess," a Gwinnett County man allegedly threw his 2-year-old terrier mix over the second-floor balcony of his Norcross apartment complex.
According to an incident report from the Gwinnett County Police Department, a woman at the Huntington Ridge Apartments on Windsor Woods Lane was talking to a friend Sunday when she saw the dog hit the ground.
She looked up and saw the suspect, who she immediately recognized as neighbor Fidel Coronado-Alvarez. At the same time, the man's son was crying and pleading for help, according to the report.
The woman took the dog and called animal control, who determined the dog most likely had a broken back leg or hip because "the dog could not put any weight on it," according to the incident report. The distance between the second-floor balcony and the ground was about 14 feet, Cpl. Jake Smith told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Animal control notified police, and when the responding officer asked the suspect what happened, Coronado-Alvarez allegedly said "the dog made a mess and (he) threw it over there."
"I confirmed that Fidel meant threw the dog over the balcony," the officer wrote in the report, "and Fidel said and nodded, 'yes.' "
Coronado-Alvarez was arrested on a felony aggravated cruelty to animals charge. He is in the Gwinnett County Adult Detention Center in lieu of $5,700 bond, according to online jail records.
"Where the dog ends up will be up to a judge as the court proceedings go forward," Smith said.
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