Mail Carrier Shoots Dog in Front of Owner, Police Say

A Postal Service carrier, apparently fed up with barks and bites from a dog on his Arleta route, shot the animal to death Tuesday with a .22-caliber pistol just as the dog’s owner emerged from her house to give the postman a Christmas bottle of vodka, Los Angeles police reported.

“He pulled the gun out and shot him and looked up at me and said, ‘I shot him,’ ” said Tammie Brody, 27. Along with her 10-year-old son, Brian, Brody owned and cared for Skippy, a 2-year-old German shepherd mix.

“I said ‘With what?’ and he said, ‘With a 22.-caliber gun.’ ”

Police arrested Floyd Bertran Sterling, 34, of Pacoima as he continued on his rounds after the 1:45 p.m. shooting in the 9100 block of Bartee Avenue. He was later released pending investigation, Officer Sidney Benaske said. Sterling could be charged with carrying a concealed weapon or cruelty to animals, Benaske said.

Brody said Postal Service Inspector Lawrence J. Sturdevant later visited her and apologized for the shooting. Sturdevant referred questions to a Postal Service spokesman, who was unavailable for comment.

Benaske said Sterling told police he had been bitten by the dog in the past and had complained about the problem to his supervisor.

But Brody said Sterling, a mail carrier in the neighborhood for at least five years, actually got along well with the dog.

“He’s watched the dog in the past, petted him and played with him,” she said. The dog did not approach Sterling Tuesday, she said.

Upon seeing Sterling approach her door, she had grabbed a bottle of vodka she bought as a holiday gift for Sterling and stepped outside, she said.

“I got to the door, and boom.

“I don’t know what happened. He just freaked out and shot the dog . . . for absolutely no reason.”