Charges: New Brighton man killed his barking puppy with hammer

Nick Ferraro, Pioneer Press
·2 min read
3

A New Brighton man killed his puppy with a hammer, telling police he repeatedly struck the 6-month-old soft-coated Wheaten Terrier in the head because it kept barking, charges say.

New Brighton police responded to an apartment building in the 2200 block of Palmer Drive around 3 p.m. Sunday on a report that a man had been verbally aggressive with his wife and had killed their puppy.

Officers saw a man matching the description walking from the building and carrying a large garbage bag. As officers drove toward him, he ran toward a dumpster.

As they approached, he said, “He wouldn’t stop barking, the dog,” charges say. He said he had killed the dog and that it was in the bag. Inside the bag was a curled-up, dead dog that appeared to have been bludgeoned.

The man, 29-year-old Tyler John Van Lannen, was arrested.

Back outside the apartment, officers met with Van Lannen’s wife. She said that she’d been away from the apartment and received a call from him complaining about their puppy’s behavior. She said he then added, “So I killed it.”

She said that she came home and they argued, and that he left with the puppy in the garbage bag.

In an interview, Van Lannen told police the couple had been having problems with the puppy soiling the apartment. He said that on that day, he lost his patience, as the dog would not stop barking, and hit it on the head with a hammer about six times, charges say.

Van Lannen’s wife gave officers consent to search their apartment. She gave them a hammer, saying it was the only one they have; it was clean. In the living room was a pool of blood, along with excrement. The living-room floor had a divot that matched the head of the hammer.

About a month before the killing, charges say, Van Lannen’s wife reported to police that he was threatening her through texts. She gave police screenshots of aggressive and threatening texts from him.

Van Lannen was charged Monday with felony animal cruelty. He made a first appearance in Ramsey County District Court on Tuesday and was released without bail. His case file does not list an attorney. He’s due back in court July 15.

Related Articles