An Atlantic City man wanted in the death of one dog and abandonment of another has turned himself in.
Aarin Burdine-Moody, 22, also is tied to a video showing two dogs attacking a third, who belonged to him.
Laquay Lewis, 53, sparked online outrage — and a criminal investigation — when he went live on Facebook from Stanley Holmes Village on Friday morning, showing two dogs on top of the third, who was on his back.
"Get out the way, Nash," Lewis yells to a man blocking the camera's view of the fight.
"Nash" is the nickname of Clarance Gilliard, who an investigation found owns the two attacking dogs, Ace and Ruger.
The 56-year-old Stanley Holmes resident was arrested Tuesday on six charges including two counts of third-degree failure to intervene and a third-degree charge for failure to provide care to Ruger, who suffered wounds to his face from the fight.
Gilliard is seen taking Ace off the pile early in the video, and putting him in a pink harness leash before walking out of view.
"Take him in the house and come back and get the other one," Lewis can be heard saying.
Gilliard then says what sounds like, "Ruger, go," while Ruger continues to bite, shake and drag the other dog.
At one point in the video, Gilliard is seen standing silently with a pink leash in hand watching as Ruger continues to bite the dog on the ground. He then walks out of frame.
After Lewis yells at him in the video, Gilliard moves out of Lewis' way before coming back and taking Ace off the pile, and putting him in a pink harness leash.
"That's what happens when you let your (expletive) dog loose around this (expletive)," Lewis says, as he turns the camera on himself. "(Expletive) might not make it back home."
It turns out, home was not much better for the dog being bitten and dragged around.
That dog — whose name is not known — is now safe at the Atlantic County Animal Shelter in Pleasantville, with wounds to his face, and especially his left ear.
But video connected to a separate case shows he survived more than the fight.
Police were called to the Liberty Apartments at 10:20 Friday morning, around the same time the fight was going live a couple of blocks away.
There, a brown-and-white pitbull was found dead, frozen and emaciated with his ribs showing, according to the affidavit of probable cause obtained by BreakingAC.
When Humane Law Enforcement Officer Taylor Brooks looked at the surveillance video, she saw the now-dead dog and another dog come out of Liberty Apartments with a man later identified as Burdine-Moody, just after midnight Thursday morning.
The two dogs dig through the trash and relieve themselves before the man goes back inside, leaving them alone.
Burdine-Moody does not return.
It is believed the brown-and-white dog froze as temperatures were below freezing during that time. A necropsy will be performed to determine the exact cause of death.
Watching the video as part of her investigation, Brooks realized the other dog was the one involved in the fight, which was being investigated by fellow city Humane Law Enforcement Officer Matthew Schmidt.
Schmidt was familiar with Burdine-Moody, as he charged the dog owner in another animal cruelty case in November, the affidavit states.
At that time, Burdine-Moody was charged after two dogs were found left alone in their crates "for days or possibly weeks," according to Liberty Apartments personnel who called police there.
The male and female dog both were found extremely emaciated, stained with urine and feces, Schmidt wrote in the affidavit in that case also obtained by BreakingAC. The male was aggressive, while the female was in even worse shape and also bleeding.
Burdine-Moody was charged on a summons at that time. He was supposed to have a first appearance in the case Wednesday, but did not show up.
He was taken in on that bench warrant along with warrants in both the fight case and the dead dog.
Clarance Gilliard is jailed pending a detention hearing.Gilliard is in the Atlantic County Justice Facility, where he had his first appearance court appearance via video. He is being held pending a detention hearing.
Lewis, whose video of the fight has since been deleted, posted follow-up livestreams saying he did not do anything wrong, and arguing that the dog was aggressive.
He also chastised those who reported the video to BreakingAC for "going to the white woman."
A woman who posted about the dog following her home about an hour before the attack said in a now-deleted post that the dog was "harmless."
The dog is being treated at the Atlantic County Animal Shelter in Pleasantville for injuries to his ears and a body, and is on pain medication.
Lewis does not face any charges, but he did provide the evidence that sparked the investigation and helped lead to Gilliard's arrest.
The dog who was attacked is at the Atlantic County Animal Shelter being treated for his injuries.
