The Friday Flyer • January 20, 2017

CANYON LAKE’S NEWSPAPER • JANUARY 20, 2017
Dueling Pianos ready to enter- tain at Lodge on Saturday Pg. A7
Winners announced in Bassmasters Club Tournament Pg. A10
Doug Schultz reflects on gratitude of fellow Canyon Lakers Pg. 15
Community
Outraged over
deathof dog
BY DONNA RITCHIE
EDITOR, THE FRIDAY FLYER
The community used social media as a way to gather neighbors to rally in support of an alleged dog shooting and to protest against the alleged shooter. As it turned out, there was no real evidence a gun was used to shoot the dog and the man was not a suspect in the case. It all began in the early evening of Satur- day, January 14, when Jen Kerker found her dog Deuce, a six-year-old Yorkshire Terrier, laying in the backyard with a puncture wound. The limp dog was im- mediately rushed to the veterinarian. It was suspected that the wound came from a pellet or BB gun but it could not be confirmed without performing surgery. The surgery was going to be costly and there was no guarantee that the five- pound dog would survive. “He was in a lot of pain,” says Jen. After much consid- eration, Jen and her husband Eric made the difficult decision to put the dog down. The police asked the Kerkers who they thought could be responsible for harm- ing their dog. They said the neighbor was the only person they could think of in their neighborhood because of run ins they had with him regarding their dog.
“It was not our inten- tion to point out any-
one, but that’s the e
way an investigations works,” says Eric. The neighbor, who asked to not be iden- tified, said he was watching a football game with his fam- ily when the police
s came knocking on his
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“I don’t even own a
gun. I even offered the
police to search my home
and garage. I told them they
can check my hands for residue and that I would take a polygraph test. I had dogs all my life until I moved here. I love dogs and would never shoot one.” The neighbor says he was shocked to hear that a dog was shot. “I didn’t even hear a gunshot nor did my family who was here with me,” he says. No other neighbors have come forward with in-
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Deuce, the family dog of Jen and Eric Kerker, was fataly injured on Saturday, January 14.
formation about hearing a gunshot. Jen, feeling sad and frustrated with the incident and investigation, took to a Canyon Lake neighborhood Face- book group and posted, “So upset our neighbor shot our dog tonight.” The post was followed by over 350 com- ments from members of the group. While some comments on the posts were in support of the dog, others were in protest of the neighbor. At one point, a member of the page posted a map to the neighbor’s home. Due to the outrage and threatening posts, the police were contacted. Leigh Bouse Clark, the ad- ministrator of the Facebook group, post- ed, “The police have called me twice and came to my house for two hours.” After being confronted by the police, and fearing she could be sued, Leigh re- moved the post that had the map to the neighbor’s home. But it was too late. The location of the neighbor’s home was identified and members of the group were organizing a rally to take place in front of the Kerkers’ home on early Sunday evening. Another mem- ber of the group notified KTLA 5 news.
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ensued between a resident and the neighbor, but was quickly broken up by an of- ficer who was standing nearby. KTLA 5 reporter, Steve Kuzj, report- ed from the scene and the segment was aired multiple times that evening. “Some residents in the community of Canyon Lake in Riverside County are outraged after a family dog, Deuce, was fatally shot this week, allegedly by a neighbor,” says the caption under the video posted on the KTLA 5 website. The story went viral. FOX 13 Salt Lake City, Georgia Newsday and the U.K. website Dailymail.com are a few of the news sources running the story. The neighbor feels that he was unjustly accused and harassed by members of his community, and portrayed in a bad way by the news. He is considering legal action. At the time of print, the dog is in po- lice custody and an necropsy is being performed to find the cause of the in- juries. Both Jen and the neighbor say the police confirmed that the neighbor is not considered a suspect in this case. The Kerkers are seeking answers as to what happened to their dog and are hop-
ing the necropsy provides that.
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Eric Kurker is questioned by a local news crew about the alleged shooting of his family dog, Deuces.