{"id":269812,"date":"2026-05-13T19:08:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T19:08:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/269812\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T19:08:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T19:08:31","slug":"tampa-police-man-killed-family-members-6-year-old-chihuahua-while-intoxicated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/269812\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa police: Man killed family member&#8217;s 6-year-old Chihuahua while intoxicated"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Investigators with Hillsborough County Animal Control confirmed that the animal&#8217;s death was caused by blunt force trauma.<\/p>\n<p>TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 A man is facing charges more than one week after fatally injuring a family member&#8217;s six-year-old Chihuahua, Tampa police say.<\/p>\n<p>TPD says officers responded on Monday, May 4, to a home on West Cordelia Street, where they found 37-year-old Christopher Malone intoxicated after intentionally causing a fatal injury to the dog, Rufus, when he walked past him.<\/p>\n<p>Investigators with Hillsborough County Animal Control confirmed that Rufus&#8217; death was caused by blunt force trauma.<\/p>\n<p>Police say Rufus weighed only four pounds.<\/p>\n<p>Malone was arrested on Tuesday and charged with aggravated cruelty to animals. He was transported to the Orient Road Jail.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The depravity required to intentionally harm a defenseless, four-pound animal is deeply disturbing,&#8221; Chief Lee Bercaw said in a statement. &#8220;This was a senseless act of violence against a family pet that offered nothing but companionship. Our hearts go out to the family who lost their beloved dog in such a tragic way, and we are committed to ensuring this individual is held fully accountable for his actions.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Investigators with Hillsborough County Animal Control confirmed that the animal&#8217;s death was caused by blunt force trauma. TAMPA,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269813,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-269812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}