Police who went to a Virginia home to notify a family about their son's death shot and killed a pit bull that ran at one of the officers.
Authorities were at the house in Henrico County to inform relatives that 33-year-old Ricky Ellerbe had been shot during an apparent robbery when the dog appeared in the fornt yard. One of the officers drew his sidearm and shot it.
"They had told me my brother was dead and I'd come out back to cry on the porch and Tiger must have heard them," the victim's sister
LaToya Ellerbe told the Richmond Times-Dispatch. "He ran into the front yard and the officer shot him."
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Ricky Ellerbe was found 6 a.m. Wednesday face down near an alley way eight blocks from his home and within several yards of an all-night convenient store where he had reportedly gone to rent a video sometime after midnight.
"He'd taken the bus up to my place to borrow the money last night; he just wanted a video or something," Ellerbe's uncle Henry Hamiel told the Times-Dispatch.
According to the victim's family, Ellerbe had been robbed for just $15 and a cell phone, which were the only items he had on him when the slaying occurred.
"He probably had been out there dead all night," Ellerbe's mother, Nannie, told the Times-Dispatch while sitting on her stoop.
"We called and called and called and no one answered," Nannie added.
As of Wednesday night, no arrests had been made.
Police are currently going through the area with forensics technicians and tracking dogs to gather evidence that could lead to a suspect, the newspaper reported.
One of five children, Ellerbe's death was the second tragedy to hit the family in recent years. His brother Gary died of a heart attack in 2010 after he had been stabbed repeatedly three years prior.
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Family members, including the victim's mother, later walked to the convenient store near where Ellerbe's body had been recovered by police.
"I can't bring myself to go over there and look," Nannie Elllerbe told the Richmond Times-Dispatch while standing only feet away from where her son was recovered as she wiped away tears.
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