A Baltimore police officer admitted beating, then choking his girlfriend’s 7-month-old puppy and texting her a photo of the dog’s body, authorities said Wednesday, March 5.
Alec Eugene Taylor of Silver Spring, Md., a five-year veteran of the Baltimore Police Department, has been slapped with aggravated animal cruelty, a felony, and abuse or neglect of an animal, a misdemeanor.
Taylor turned himself into the Montgomery County police on Wednesday.
County police told the Baltimore Sun that Taylor’s girlfriend called them on Feb. 28 and said Taylor had killed Rocko, a Jack Russell terrier, two days earlier. Taylor reportedly had texted her that the dog defecated on the carpet and he chased it, choked it and killed it, then transmitted proof of the dead dog to his girlfriend.
Authorities said Taylor, 27, told his girlfriend he had beaten the dog with a mop and put his body in an outdoor trash bin. Police said Taylor retrieved the dog’s body at his girlfriend’s request, and she buried Rocko in a park.
Officers with the Animal Services Division retrieved the dog’s body and after an autopsy confirmed that blunt force trauma was the cause of death. Authorities said Taylor told Animal Services that he used a mop to force Rocko from behind a dryer and choked the dog with his hands.
Baltimore police immediately suspended Taylor without pay pending the outcome of the investigation and subsequent legal proceedings.
“Allegations of animal cruelty are taken seriously by the Baltimore Police Department. Over the course of the last year significant emphasis has been placed on developing and training investigators to handle animal abuse incidents in Baltimore,” the department said in a statement.
