Walled Lake — One person is dead and another in custody after a shooting in a dispute between neighbors over a loose dog.
According to police, a 28-year-old man shot his 45-year-old neighbor after the older man confronted the younger man about the suspect’s dog getting loose and going into the victim’s yard.
The victim, later identified by family as Edwin Criswell, died after being taken to a local hospital.
Walled Lake Police Deputy Chief Bruce Kirby said the shooting suspect called police at about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday to report the shooting on the 1100 block of Sigma.
One of the suspect’s dogs, a beagle, was near the victim’s home when the suspect pulled up to the house in his vehicle, apparently to retrieve it, Kirby said.
“Apparently, there was a conflict between the victim and the dog owner, the suspect, and it just escalated,” Kirby said.
There have been complaints made to animal control against the suspect’s dogs, Kirby said.
The beagle believed to have been at the victim’s house at the time of the shooting was taken by animal control, Kirby said. The suspect’s other dogs were taken by family members.
Walled Lake police are preparing to seek a warrant for the suspect and are seeking homicide and possibly other charges.
Joseph Criswell was at his brother’s home with a cousin and Edwin Criswell’s live-in girlfriend Wednesday, each trying to make sense of the events leading to the death.
“I really don’t know too much about what happened other than what police told me,” said Joseph Criswell, 44, of White Lake Township.
The victim’s brother said he had never heard Edwin Criswell talk about the neighbor or any of the dogs.
“It’s really kind of sad because I was hoping we would spend Christmas together,” Criswell said.
The younger Criswell said his brother lived a troubled life and had spent time in prison. He also had several health problems, including complications related to liver failure, that prevented him from being able to work. Edwin Criswell had lived with his girlfriend at the home where he was killed for about five years, his brother said.
But he was trying to turn his life around, Criswell said.
“He was no angel. He did some bad things and was accused of doing some bad things but he did his time,” Criswell said. “Whatever crimes he committed were in the past and they stayed in the past.”
According to the Michigan Public Sex Offender Registry, Edwin Criswell had been convicted of first-degree criminal sexual conduct with a person younger than 13.
The homes in the neighborhood are double-wide, modular houses, with big front yards that are not separated by fences or shrubbery. “Beware of the dog” signs are posted on backyard chain-link fences.
Resident Doug Brewer said he knows the neighbor believed to be responsible for the shooting. He described the suspect as “a nice guy” but acknowledged the suspect’s dogs can be problematic. The suspect, Brewer said, has four or five dogs.
“They get loud,” Brewer said.
Just last week, one of the dogs bit Brewer when he was returning a dog to the owner’s back yard after it got out.
“He ended up buying me a new coat,” Brewer said of the bloodhound’s owner.
Brewer said the suspect did not seem like the type who would lash out in violence.
Amanda Patton, 28, who lives on Sigma at Gamma, said the suspect keeps mostly to himself, but has four dogs, two beagles and two bloodhounds that mostly are kept in his back yard.
One of the beagles gets out sometimes and she has taken it back to its owner. “He’s always really apologetic,” Patton said.
Patton said the neighbors who live closest to her keep an eye out for each other’s pets if they get loose. Patton has a Chihuahua that runs out sometimes.
Other neighbors have been known to call animal control on her and on the suspect.
“I just can’t believe this is all about dogs,” Patton said.
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