Dog-Shooting Suspect Was on Probation for Gun Violation

The postman who allegedly shot a dog to death in Arleta because the dog bit him earlier was on probation for carrying a loaded pistol in his car, court records showed Thursday.

Meanwhile, the Brody family prepared plans for an elaborate funeral for their slain pet, Skippy, a 2-year-old mixed German shepherd, at the expense of the U.S. Postal Service. The funeral Wednesday is to include a silk-lined casket, graveside ceremony and headstone at a pet cemetery in Calabasas.

According to San Fernando Municipal Court records, mail carrier Floyd Bertran Sterling, 34, who the Brodys said shot Skippy on Tuesday, was on probation for a 1988 misdemeanor conviction for carrying a loaded .44 magnum revolver.

An officer stopped Sterling for speeding and turning left in front of oncoming traffic, according to a police report on file. Noticing targets in the back of the car, he asked Sterling if he was carrying a gun.

Sterling, who was on his way home from a firing range, showed the officer his loaded revolver in its case and was arrested on the spot. He pleaded no contest to the charges in December, 1988, and was sentenced to two years probation and fined $150.

Sterling, who told police Skippy had bitten him earlier, was arrested following the shooting but later released. Detective Manford Brown said he will ask the district attorney’s office today to charge Sterling with cruelty to an animal.

Sterling also faces possible action by the Postal Service for violating regulations that prohibit workers from carrying firearms on the job. The Postal Service placed Sterling on paid leave while the investigation continues.

Skippy’s owner, Tammie Brody, 27, said Sterling “freaked out” and shot the dog, who was not menacing him, just as Brody emerged from her house to give the mail carrier his Christmas present, a bottle of vodka wrapped with a green ribbon.

“Everyone’s very sorry about it,” said John Conte, communications manager for the U.S. Postal Service division in Van Nuys, as he announced Thursday that the federal agency will pick up the tab for Skippy’s funeral.

“It’s an unfortunate situation. We’re willing to do what we can to alleviate the situation.”

Skippy will be laid to rest in a deluxe, 40-inch silk-lined casket banked by flowers at Los Angeles Pet Memorial Park, said Laura Ortega, a spokeswoman for the pet cemetery. He has been given a burial plot next to Whiskey, a German shepherd that belonged to Brody’s brother.

Ortega said a bill for funeral services had reached $531.50 and was still climbing. The headstone and flowers were expected to add several hundred dollars, she said.

Brody said she wants a fancy ceremony to help her 10-year-old son, Brian, get over the trauma of witnessing the killing of his pet. Brody said her son would probably say a few words of farewell before the casket is lowered into the ground.

The dog “certainly didn’t die in a nice way,” Brody said. “If he could be buried in a nice way,” perhaps her son “could just go on and not dwell on it,” Brody said.

Neighbors living on Sterling’s route in Arleta rallied around the postman they described as “friendly.”

“I really think the dog had it coming,” said John Tween, 42. “That dog was always out in the street chasing cars.”

Another neighbor who said she knew Sterling for seven years did not believe reports that Sterling shot the dog without provocation.

“He’s very warm. He’s a nice guy, and I personally think this dog must have done something to him,” said Beth Adams, 30. Adams said she contacted the Postal Service to offer money to go toward a legal fund and to act as a character witness in Sterling’s defense.

The Brody family has received at least one offer of a new pet from a man whose yellow Labrador retriever recently had puppies. “I just thought that it would ease the trauma some,” said Philip Bagwell, 45, a North Hollywood construction worker.

Brody declined the offer.

The family does not want a dog big enough to threaten mail carriers, she said. “My son really wants a Chihuahua. He doesn’t want a big dog that will run around and get shot.”