Veteran Allegedly Executes Her Own Service Dog

When volunteers appealed for someone to adopt a 2-year-old pit bull that had arrived at a North Carolina animal shelter, it was with the hope that the dog would find "a real loving forever home." Instead, the dog met a gruesome end last week when he was shot to death—allegedly by his owner, as cameras and laughter rolled, police tell the Fayetteville Observer. Authorities say Army veteran Marinna Rollins and her soldier boyfriend Jarren Heng took Rollins' dog, named Cam, to a wooded area, tied it to a tree, shot it at close range, then buried it in a shallow grave, per WTVD. In an April 17 Facebook post, however, Rollins had said she'd found a new home for Cam, originally adopted by her estranged husband, because caring for him was too expensive.

"Sad he has to go, but he will be much happier where he is heading off to," wrote Rollins, 23, who had Cam certified as a support dog for PTSD after her husband was deployed to South Korea; she medically retired from the Army at the beginning of the year. "He's going to have such a great new life," Heng, 25, added in a comment. But according to police, Rollins shot the dog five times as Heng recorded the incident, then filmed Heng firing several more shots. Both Rollins and Heng, now charged with cruelty to animals and conspiracy, are heard on video "laughing and giggling" as the dog dies, says the Cumberland County DA. As for how the crime surfaced, WNCN reports someone who knows Rollins posted video of the shooting to Facebook with the intention of police catching wind of it. (This instance of animal cruelty involved spilled vodka.)