{"id":270261,"date":"2026-05-14T01:34:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T01:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/270261\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T01:34:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T01:34:28","slug":"tampa-man-arrested-for-killing-family-members-dog-tpd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/270261\/","title":{"rendered":"Tampa man arrested for killing family member’s dog: TPD"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 A Tampa man is charged with aggravated cruelty to animals after being accused of killing a family member’s six-year-old dog.<\/p>\n

The Tampa Police Department (TPD) announced on May 13 that officers arrested 37-year-old Christopher Malone on May 12 after the death of a four-pound chihuahua named Rufus.<\/p>\n

The incident happened at about 10 p.m. on May 4, when officers responded to a home in the 3100 block of West Cordelia Street. <\/p>\n

Investigators concluded Malone was intoxicated and “intentionally inflicted a fatal injury on the four-pound dog after it walked past him.”<\/p>\n

Hillsborough County Animal Control confirmed the dog’s death was caused by blunt force trauma.<\/p>\n

“The depravity required to intentionally harm a defenseless, four-pound animal is deeply disturbing,”\u00a0said Chief Lee Bercaw.\u00a0“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.”<\/p>\n

TPD said Malone was transported to Orient Road Jail.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Billionaire John Morgan says he\u2019d help bring Rays to Orlando if Tampa deal falls apart<\/p>\n

\u201cI would still put my money up for baseball, but only in Orlando,\u201d notable attorney John Morgan said.<\/p>\n

Billionaire John Morgan says he\u2019d help bring Rays to Orlando if Tampa deal falls apart<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 A Tampa man is charged with aggravated cruelty to animals after being accused of killing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":214181,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[89692,115863,276,115850,115864,135,5910,108336,3670,137,136,9822,208],"class_list":["post-270261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-chihuahua","tag-christopher-malone","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-hillsborough-county-animal-control","tag-rufus","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-28","tag-tampa-bay-28-news","tag-tampa-bay-local-news","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-tampa-police","tag-wfts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270261","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=270261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}