Pit bull owner in fatal dog attack in Santa Monica identified, police say
SANTA MONICA, Calif. - Police have identified the owner of the pit bull that fatally attacked a toy poodle in Santa Monica last week.
What we know
In a statement, the Santa Monica Police Department said the pit bull owner involved was identified and that the city attorney would evaluate "whether any municipal or criminal violations apply based on the facts presented."
SUGGESTED: Owners of small dog killed by pit bull in Santa Monica speak out
"We want to be transparent in acknowledging that, under current law, many dog-on-dog attacks and related violations fall under civil or misdemeanor-level offenses. These may include violations of leash laws, failure to control a dangerous animal, or failure to provide information following a dog bite," police said.
What we don't know
The identity of the pit bull owner was not released.
It's unclear if the owner will be charged, or if anything will happen to the pit bull.
The backstory
According to police, the attack happened on Friday, April 11 around 5:30 p.m. near Main Street and Strand.
The small toy poodle, Dublin, was on a walk with its owners, Christopher Dietrick and Allysa Kluge, when the fatal attack happened.
SUGGESTED: Santa Monica dog attack: Owner of pit bull sought after toy poodle's killing
"This is a walk we take three times a day, it's in our neighborhood, just about a block and a half from our home," said Dietrick. "We're walking home with Dublin and as we were walking, a man was not paying attention.. he was leaned into a passenger side window of a car and his pit bull mix lunged across us, got a hold of our Dublin."
Dietrick was also bitten by the pit bull when he tried to intervene.
The pit bull's owner fled the scene on foot with the dog, and his image was captured by security cameras, police said. Witnesses reported the owner and dog ran into an apartment building in the Ocean Park neighborhood.
What they're saying
Allysa Kluge called the pit bull's owner a "coward," saying the responsibility as a pet owner is to take care of your pet from hurting you and other people, other animals - something "this gentleman failed."
"He had a responsibility to hold that pit bull tight, to hold him and pay attention, and he did not. We had our Dublin on a leash. He had his dog on a leash. He was not paying attention."
Kluge said she first got Dublin more than 11 years ago - on St. Patrick's Day - when he was a puppy at 10-weeks-old.
What you can do
For animal safety concerns or to report an incident, please contact Santa Monica Animal Control at (310) 458-8595.
The Source
Information for this story is from the Santa Monica Police Department and an interview with Allysa Kluge and Christopher Dietrick on April 14, 2025.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
3 days ago
- Boston Globe
Woman testifies at rape trial of Irish firefighter about alleged attack in Boston hotel
Prosecutors allege that Crosbie raped a 'female stranger' while she slept at the Omni Parker House hotel in downtown Boston on March 14, 2024, when he was in the city to participate in the St. Patrick's Day parade with fellow members of the Dublin Fire Brigade. Advertisement During her testimony on Tuesday, the now 29-year-old woman, who is a lawyer, was crying and wiping her eyes with tissues. At times during her testimony, she had to stop speaking as she sobbed and recalled the night of March 14. Defense attorneys contend that Crosbie did not rape the woman and that Advertisement 'It's fair to say your testimony from yesterday doesn't match what you first told the detective,' Daniel C. Reilly, Crosbie's attorney, asked the woman, referring to her explanation of the incident on Monday. 'Yes,' she responded. Crosbie wore a gray suit jacket and appeared to take notes and watch the woman on the stand. Crosbie's wife was in the courtroom on Tuesday, according to his attorneys. In her testimony on Monday, the woman described her day on March 14, starting around 1:45 p.m. at Big Night Live for a 'staff appreciation party' with co-workers. She later went to State Street Provisions, a restaurant near the New England Aquarium, around 7 p.m. before arriving at The Black Rose around 9 p.m. The woman said she drank about five or six beers throughout that period. 'I was totally coherent,' she testified. The woman said the alcohol made her 'looser' but had no 'negative impact' on her. At the bar, the woman met a man named Liam O'Brien, who was part of the Irish Fire Brigade, she said. The woman said she and O'Brien continued to speak and dance throughout the night before eventually going to O'Brien's hotel room, which he shared with Crosbie, around 11:30 p.m. The woman said she did not know anyone else was staying in the hotel room. She said the pair had consensual sex, and she fell asleep on a separate bed. Crosbie entered the room at some point in the night and saw the woman 'vulnerable and defenseless' in his bed at the hotel, Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Daniela Mendes said. 'He saw an opportunity and took full, violent advantage of it,' Mendes said on Monday. Advertisement In her testimony on Tuesday, the woman described waking up and someone raping her. 'What are you doing? Stop!' the woman told police she said to the man. She described Crosbie allegedly following her around the hotel room, trying to kiss her, and she said he pushed her against the wall as she gathered her clothes to leave. The woman said she was in the room for about 10 minutes from when she woke to leaving the hotel room. When the woman saw photos of the hotel room in court and then herself leaving the hotel room, she began to cry. The woman then messaged a friend at 2:18 p.m. to say she had been assaulted. She went home and changed her clothes before going to Massachusetts General Hospital, where she spoke with police. 'I hate everyone,' the woman said in the text message to her friend. 'What the [expletive] is wrong with people.' The text also said that Crosbie allegedly told her 'he knew [she] wanted it and how pathetic it was his friend couldn't give that.' Reilly, Crosbie's attorney, said the woman's blood alcohol level when she later went to the hospital was .135, which is over the legal driving limit of 0.08%. When asked if she was still impaired at the time of her blood being drawn in the hospital, the woman said, 'I guess.' After talking about the legal limit, Reilly asked the woman, 'You were still intoxicated,' when she was at the hospital. The woman said, 'Yes.' Carly Littlejohn, a registered nurse in the emergency department of Massachusetts General Hospital, also testified on Tuesday. Littlejohn completed the 'evidence collection kit' on the woman in the early morning of March 15. Advertisement Littlejohn said all patients who are undergoing a collection kit must consent. To do so, they have to be 'completely clinically' sober, she said, which is a medical term. Patients who can consent can answer questions such as where they are and who they are, as well as 'showing no signs of intoxication,' Littlejohn said. Littlejohn said the woman was medically cleared to undergo the collection kit, meaning she could consent then. On redirect, Assistant Suffolk District Attorney Erin Murphy asked the woman why she didn't cry out for help in the hotel room or the hallways as she left the room. 'I just wanted to get out of there,' she said. 'I didn't know anyone; I just wanted to get out.' Ava Berger can be reached at
Bloomberg
4 days ago
- Bloomberg
The Spying Scandal Rocking the World of HR Software
Businessweek Technology HR software maker Rippling accused Deel, a key rival, of hiring a staff member to serve as a mole. Things escalated from there. On a cold March day in Dublin, Keith O'Brien looked down at his phone, raised an axe and smashed the device, again and again. A day earlier—a day O'Brien would later describe in sworn testimony as one of the darkest of his life—a corporate lawyer had given him the legally dubious advice to throw the phone into one of Dublin's canals. Instead he crushed it beyond recovery, gathered the shards and flushed them down the drain at his mother-in-law's house.
Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Yahoo
Maxwell Anderson case goes to jury after seven days of testimony
A jury is weighing the fate of Maxwell Anderson who is charged with killing and dismembering Sade Robinson. Anderson, 34, is charged with first-degree intentional homicide, mutilation of a corpse, hiding a corpse and arson in the April 2024 death of Robinson, 19, after they went on a first date in Milwaukee. Prosecutors urged jurors to consider the totality of the evidence, while the defense argued the state had failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Anderson had killed Robinson. Assistant District Attorney Ian Vance-Curzan told jurors to use "common sense and search for the truth." He described Robinson as "anything and everything" that someone that age would want to be. She worked two jobs, went to Milwaukee Area Technical College, supported herself and lived in a small studio apartment on the city's east side. "Most of all, she was respected and loved by her family," Vance-Curzan said. Defense Attorney Anthony Cotton argued there were holes in the prosecution's story, and there was no weapon found or clear DNA evidence to back up the state's claims that Anderson killed Robinson in his home. "I'm not here to hide a thing," Cotton said. "Study it all. Study every piece of evidence in this case." The state admitted more than 300 pieces of evidence and called more than 65 witnesses. The defense did not call any. The trial has featured hours of testimony from investigators and technical experts to describe and explain phone data, security footage and physical evidence recovered during the investigation into Robinson's disappearance and death. Among the witnesses in the trial's final days were a former girlfriend of Anderson's and a former tenant. News media was instructed not to identify either witness. The former girlfriend said she had dated Anderson from May 2022 to March 2023. The woman said she contacted police when she saw news of Anderson's arrest. She testified he was sometimes 'emotionally abusive,' but never physically harmed her. She recalled an incident in which Anderson got into a fistfight with her previous boyfriend at a bar on St. Patrick's Day 2022. She also testified there were multiple hidden compartments throughout Anderson's home, including a false bottom in a drawer under the bathroom sink. The former tenant said he did not hear anything amiss in the home on the evening of April 1, 2024 — no screams, struggles or loud tools. This was out of the norm because Anderson often made noise that could be heard throughout the house, the tenant said. Anderson had loud visitors over in the early morning hours 'all the time' and operated power tools for his woodworking several times a month, the tenant said. The tenant said he heard Anderson moving a heavy object down the stairs between 5 and 6 a.m. one morning that week, but could not recall which day. It was sometime before April 4, 2024, when a SWAT team swarmed the home, the tenant said. Throughout his closing argument, Vance-Curzan used a digital presentation of surveillance footage and phone data to walk the jury through Robinson's final days. Vance-Curzan emphasized several facts: the photos showing Robinson incapacitated found on Anderson's cell phone data and that were deleted; the two's DNA found on a sweater he was wearing the day after their date ; and that the backpack he is seen wearing on bus security footage has never been found. He recounted the gruesome details of Robinson's death to try to prove intent. "What kind of person cuts off someone's head off? A killer, a killer who's trying get away with killing," Vance-Curzan said. "There is no question about the person responsible for doing it. The killer, it's him." Cotton, in his closing, hammered on the lack of DNA evidence found in Anderson's house. "None of Sade's blood is anywhere in that home," Cotton said. Once the attorneys finished their closing arguments, Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Laura Crivello dismissed jurors and asked them to start deliberations. She had earlier given the jury instructions. If the jury is not satisfied that Anderson is guilty of first-degree intentional homicide, they can still convict him of the less serious offense of first-degree reckless homicide. The verdict must be unanimous. If jurors cannot agree on a verdict, then a hung jury is declared, and the case may be retried. There is no time limit on deliberation, and jurors can deliberate anywhere from hours to weeks to decide a verdict. "You jurors are the judges of the credibility of the witnesses and the weight of the evidence," Crivello said. Maia Pandey, Ariela Lopez and Ashley Luthern of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this article. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Jury to decide Maxwell Anderson case, charged in Sade Robinson's death
