INDIANAPOLIS — IMPD officers arrested a man they considered to be armed and dangerous after an incident at a southwest Indianapolis home in December 2023.
Court documents allege 53-year-old James Gaskins shot his neighbors' dog for barking and threatened to shoot the neighbors and their other dogs if they tried to call police.
All of this, according to police, happened the day after Christmas in the 1800 block of West Minnesota Street, near South Belmont Avenue.
Police issued an arrest warrant for Gaskins on May 8 in connection with the alleged incident, but IMPD did not give clear answers as to why several months passed before they put out the arrest warrant for Gaskins.
The dog's owners want to know why, too.
They've been living in fear ever since they say their neighbor shot their dog in their backyard.
"Ever since then, I refuse to go out my back door," Margaret McKinney said.
That's because when she does, McKinney still sees her 4-year-old German shepherd, Kratos, lying in the fenced-in backyard, shot dead.
"He died in my arms," McKinney said, crying.
Minutes earlier, she says Kratos was barking in the backyard.
"He's just protecting his yard and his home," McKinney said.
McKinney says a man from the house across the alley yelled out.
"He told me if I didn't shut the dog up, he would shoot him," McKinney recalled, explaining that seconds later, she heard a shot and saw Kratos go down.
"I just screamed and said, 'You shot my dog!' McKinney said.
"I still haven't gotten over it because I still have real bad dreams," McKinney said, explaining that she called police, and an officer came out to take a report.
The next day, McKinney said she called police again because the same neighbor who shot her dog confronted her outside when she was with her other dogs in the backyard.
"He goes, 'I heard those dogs and those dogs out again.' He goes, 'I'm going to shoot them dogs, and I'm going to shoot you,'" McKinney said the man told her, explaining that she's been terrified ever since and still devastated about the way Kratos died.
"He was my baby. He was like family. I miss him a lot. I think about him all the time," McKinney said, crying.
McKinney also thinks about the man police believe shot her dog.
"I'm afraid he's coming back for revenge, and it scares me to go out," McKinney said.
This incident isn't Gaskins' first brush with police.
According to jail records, he recently spent nearly two weeks in jail, charged with criminal recklessness and battery. Records show Gaskins was released April 29 on $500 cash bond and was required to report to community corrections for a GPS ankle bracelet.
Gaskins' mother told 13News he had been in jail after attacking a family member. She didn't want to go on camera, but she said she doesn't know where her son is and that the family has a protective order against him.
Gaskins' initial court hearing in the latest incident is set for Tuesday, May 14.