{"id":319248,"date":"2026-08-12T04:08:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T04:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/319248\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T04:08:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T04:08:14","slug":"retired-nypd-officer-accused-of-shooting-homeless-mans-dog-faces-hostile-crowd-at-yorktown-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/319248\/","title":{"rendered":"Retired NYPD officer accused of shooting homeless man’s dog faces hostile crowd at Yorktown court"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was a show of support Tuesday night outside Yorktown Justice Court, where a former New York City police officer faced charges in the shooting death of a dog named Luke<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The case has elicited strong emotions across the community, with many rallying around the dog’s owner, who is homeless.<\/p>\n

“Justice for Luke”<\/p>\n

As retired NYPD Officer James Molloy walked out of court, he was surrounded by angry and emotional supporters demanding “justice for Luke.” The 61-year-old is facing charges, including first-degree reckless endangerment and aggravated cruelty to animals in the Aug. 5 shooting. <\/p>\n

\"luke-the-dog.png<\/p>\n

Luke, a shepherd-husky mix, was shot and killed on Aug. 5, 2026, police said.<\/p>\n

Town of Yorktown<\/p>\n

Supporters said the killing of the 12-year-old shepherd-husky mix struck a chord in their community.<\/p>\n

“You don’t need to pull a gun on a dog that old,” one person said.<\/p>\n

“It’s ugly living in the world where animal abusers aren’t held accountable, and we are tired of it,” Yorktown resident Shauna Amiot said.<\/p>\n

“It’s concerning, disheartening that the people who are supposed to protect us have the mindset like this,” resident Charlie Jaacomo added. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Supporters also rallied for Luke’s owner, Matt Steele, a homeless man who is well known and beloved in the area.<\/p>\n

Steele declined to be interviewed.<\/p>\n

“I spoke with Matt. He’s got a big heart. He doesn’t want anyone to hate [the accused]. He hates what he did, and so do we,” resident Enzo Addeo said.<\/p>\n

Luke was shot following scuffle with another dog, police say<\/p>\n

A memorial continues to grow on busy Route 118 in downtown Yorktown Heights, where police say the shooting happened.<\/p>\n

They say Luke broke free from his leash and approached Molloy, who was walking his own dog.<\/p>\n

The two dogs began scuffling and Molloy allegedly pulled out a gun and fired a shot, killing Luke.<\/p>\n

Molloy’s next court date is in October. Community members said they are paying close attention.<\/p>\n

“We will be here. We aren’t going anywhere if we don’t get justice for Luke,” resident Lauren Baudendistel said.<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was a show of support Tuesday night outside Yorktown Justice Court, where a former New York City…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319249,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[6530,2000,9,11,10,1628,69190],"class_list":["post-319248","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-dogs","tag-homelessness","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-westchester-county","tag-yorktown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319248","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319248"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319248\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319248"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319248"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319248"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}