{"id":269896,"date":"2026-05-13T20:22:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T20:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/269896\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T20:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T20:22:09","slug":"tampa-man-arrested-in-fatal-injury-of-family-chihuahua","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/269896\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa man arrested in fatal injury of family Chihuahua"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">TAMPA, Fla. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mysuncoast.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.mysuncoast.com\/\">WWSB<\/a>) &#8211; A Tampa man was arrested after police said he intentionally injured a family member\u2019s Chihuahua, leading to the dog\u2019s death.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Christopher Malone was arrested May 12 and charged with aggravated cruelty to animals, according to the Tampa Police Department. He was taken to Orient Road Jail.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"Christopher Malone was arrested May 12 and charged with aggravated cruelty to animals,...\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/KUV5RB6EM5BUZLWUSGAIVXVGZE.jpg\" width=\"980\" height=\"1225\" \/>Christopher Malone was arrested May 12 and charged with aggravated cruelty to animals, according to the Tampa Police Department. He was taken to Orient Road Jail.(Tampa Police Department)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Officers responded around 10 p.m. May 4 to a home in the 3100 block of West Cordelia Street. Police said the investigation found Malone was intoxicated when he intentionally inflicted a fatal injury on Rufus, a 6-year-old Chihuahua weighing about 4 pounds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mysuncoast.com\/2026\/05\/06\/puppy-seen-video-being-abused-tampa-has-died-its-injuries\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.mysuncoast.com\/2026\/05\/06\/puppy-seen-video-being-abused-tampa-has-died-its-injuries\/\">Puppy seen on video being abused in Tampa has died of its injuries<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The dog had walked past Malone before the injury happened, police said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">A later investigation by Hillsborough County Animal Control found Rufus died from blunt force trauma, according to police.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThe depravity required to intentionally harm a defenseless, four-pound animal is deeply disturbing,\u201d Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw said. \u201cThis 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 WWSB. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. (WWSB) &#8211; A Tampa man was arrested after police said he intentionally injured a family member\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[115848,115849,115851,115850,135,115847,137,136],"class_list":["post-269896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-chihuahua-death-investigation","tag-christopher-malone-arrest","tag-gravated-cruelty-to-animals","tag-hillsborough-county-animal-control","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-animal-cruelty-arrest","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269896","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=269896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}