Hawthorne man arrested on suspicion of running car over Chihuahua

A 45-year-old man has been arrested after allegedly running over his Chihuahua with his car in a Hawthorne alley in an incident police say was caught on video.

A passerby spotted the dog’s body in a plastic bag Thursday in the alley near El Segundo Boulevard and Doty Avenue where it was struck, said Hawthorne police Lt. Scott Swain.

“Someone was walking by and smelled it -- it had been out for a while,” Swain said Monday.

The passerby contacted animal control, Swain said, and during a subsequent investigation, police learned a resident’s nearby surveillance camera captured the incident.

The video dated Dec. 28 shows a man parking his car in the alley, then getting something out of his trunk. The dog then scurries alongside the vehicle before standing in the middle of the alley.

The car then backs up and speeds toward the animal, which tries to run out of the way before it is hit. The vehicle then drives off, leaving the dog alone in the alley.

The Chihuahua was “completely run over,” Hawthorne police said in a statement.

Swain said someone later placed the dog’s body in the bag and moved it to the side of the alley.

Investigators used the footage to identify the car’s license plate and registration, Swain said. The man, identified by police as Hawthorne resident Michael David Parker, was arrested Friday on suspicion of willful cruelty to an animal, Swain said.

Parker owned the dog, identified later as a 5 1/2-year-old named Cow Cow, police said.

Parker is due in court March 25, police said.

“It’s just shocking to see a little animal like that and to see this guy -- you can actually see him drive toward the dog,” Swain said. “We come across weird things, strange things, gruesome things, but even to us, to see something like this is shocking.”

ALSO:

FBI makes arrest in fire at Chinese Consulate in San Francisco

Family of brain-dead Jahi McMath has ‘real concerns’ about safety

Sheriff Baca backs proposal to create civilian oversight commission

Twitter: @katemather | Google+
kate.mather@latimes.com