This is someone Columbus residents counted on to save their lives? Wow. What did he do if it looked like getting someone out of a fire might be tricky?
Give credit to this piece of work’s fellow firefighters. They tend to protect their own. Not this time.
But, rest assured that the union representing Columbus firefighters will invoke 9/11 (New York, Washington, D.C., FYI) to justify defending this animal lover.
Firefighters union: He’s a hero! He’s a hero! 9/11! 9/11!
Common sense: He shot his two dogs so he could go on a cruise without paying for boarding.
Firefighters union: 9/11! 9/11!
From The Columbus Dispatch:
Firefighter killed dogs before going on vacation
Columbus firefighter David P. Santuomo will spend 90 days in jail and pay $4,500 in restitution for shooting his two dogs in the basement of his home and wrapping their bodies in a plastic sheet.
Investigators say Santuomo, 43, of 2945 Rushbury Dr., has admitted that he was going on a cruise with his girlfriend and didn’t want to pay to board the dogs Sloopy and Skeeter even though two neighbors offered to watch the animals in his absence. At the time, he lived on Essington Drive near Dublin.
Franklin County Municipal Judge Harland H. Hale accepted guilty pleas to two counts of animal cruelty and one count of possessing a criminal tool a homemade silencer Santuomo used on the end of a rifle.
The pleas today could jeopardize Santuomo’s career. He still faces an internal disciplinary hearing with Fire Chief Ned Pettus Jr. He has been a firefighter since 1996.
Assistant County Prosecutor Heather Robinson said the facts of the case are brutal:
On Dec. 3, Santuomo laid down a plastic sheet in his basement and tied the dogs to a pipe, partially suspending their bodies. He shot them multiple times, then dumped their carcasses in a trash bin behind Fire Station 27 at 7560 Smoky Row Rd., where he was assigned.
“He later bragged about killing his pets to fellow firefighters, and he showed no remorse, even joking about it,” Robinson said. “Fellow firefighters were disgusted by what he did, and the Capital Area Humane Society was called to investigate.”
Click here for the entire Dispatch story.
