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YOUNGSTOWN -- Dustin M. Shamp, 31, was sentenced to five years of probation and 30 days in the Mahoning County jail Tuesday after pleading guilty earlier to one felony count of cruelty to companion animals and one misdemeanor count of discharging a firearm on or near prohibited premises for shooting a dog on Tremble Avenue in Campbell on March 1, 2025.
Prosecutors dismissed a firearm specification as part of the plea agreement prosecutors reached with Shamp, said Mahoning County Assistant Prosecutor Katherine Jones. She asked Mahoning County Common Pleas Court Judge John Durkin to sentence Shamp to five years of probation and six months in the Mahoning County jail.
Jones said one witness in the case was no longer cooperating with prosecutors and was a reason prosecutors reached the plea agreement.
Jones said Shamp was visiting a friend's home when the neighbor's dog was outside in the tree line. She said she believes the defense would have argued that the dog, Bruno, "was going to attack" and that Shamp "perceived Bruno was a threat."
But Jones said she believes the evidence would have shown "that changed almost immediately. The first shot struck Bruno in the left foreleg, according to the forensic veterinarian that was consulted in this case," Jones said.
"That injury immediately affected Bruno's ability to move. Witnesses consistently described Bruno stumbling, losing his balance, dragging himself across the yard and ultimately crawling underneath a van," Jones said.
"Those descriptions are consistent with the medical findings," Jones said.
The dog was shot in the rectal area, Jones said. That wound is consistent with Bruno "either running away from the defendant or already being incapacitated and facing away from him when he was shot."
Jones said those injuries are not consistent with Bruno "charging directly at" Shamp or trying to attack him. She said the evidence shows that Shamp fired a weapon multiple times over about 30 seconds in a residential neighborhood. She said witnesses were yelling at Shamp to stop shooting, but he did not. Bruno was 10 months old, she said.
DEFENSE
Defense attorney Pete Klimis told the judge that the one witness who saw everything was the woman Shamp was visiting at the time of the incident. She voluntarily made herself unavailable to cooperate in this case, Klimis said.
He has learned that the owner of the dog was threatening Shamp's friend with regard to testifying "to make sure my client got convicted," Klimis said. The neighbor was charged with burglary of the woman's home while the case was pending, Klimis said, adding that the charge was pleaded down in Campbell Municipal Court.
Shamp has no criminal record, Klimis said, adding that the dog was a pit bull and weighed 80 to 90 pounds. Jones interjected that it weighed 49 pounds.
Klimis said Shamp felt the dog was charging at him so he fired shots at the dog until it was incapacitated. Klimis said Shamp believed the dog was dying, so he shot it one more time because it was suffering. Shamp was raising three sons, but he has not been able to see them since this incident arose over a year ago, Klimis said. Shamp works full time, he noted. Shamp told the judge he thought the dog was a stray.
CAMPBELL POLICE
A Campbell police report states that a neighbor and the neighbor's two young daughters let their dogs out to do their business around 6 p.m. Within seconds, the neighbor heard a gunshot, then heard his daughters and one of his dogs screaming.
The report states that Shamp fired as many as five shots, with at least three striking the dog, who later died of his injuries at an emergency vet center in Girard. His owner said he paid $4,200 for the dog.
The report states that the severely wounded Bruno tried to hide under a van in Shamp's yard as Shamp continued to fire at him.
The report states he told police his daughters repeatedly yelled at Shamp to stop, and Shamp continued to shoot at Bruno even while the man's daughter was trying to attend to him. The girl was within 15 feet of Bruno while Shamp fired more shots at him, the report states.
The first shots were fired while the girls were in the back yard with the dogs. The report states that Shamp told police Bruno charged and was snarling at him, but evidence from an investigation by Campbell humane officer Jim Conroy indicated that Bruno was in his own yard, posing no threat to Shamp, when the shooting began.
The report states that no shell casings were found in the area where Shamp told police he was standing when he shot Bruno.
The report states that a woman with Shamp told police she saw Shamp shoot Bruno and that the dog was not posing a threat to him at the time, and she repeatedly shouted at Shamp to stop shooting.