Former Cop Hit with Felony Charges After Shooting Hunting Dog

A former Indiana police officer has found himself on the wrong side of the law after allegedly shooting and killing a hunting dog that had wandered onto his mother’s property. 

The accused, David Gene Diehl, 56, who has ties to local law enforcement and once ran for Steuben County sheriff, now faces a Level 6 felony charge of animal cruelty following the shooting.

The incident took place back on February 2 as local hunter Tyler Steury was chasing coyotes with his dogs on a neighboring property along C.R. 725E, in Steuben County. One of his prized hounds, valued at an estimated $15,000 and fitted with a tracking collar, strayed about 25 yards onto Diehl’s mother’s land. According to court records, at the sight of the dog, Diehl claimed the dog “approached” him and his 28-year-old son, Brandon, and feeling threatened, admitted to shoot the hound in the head, killing it on the spot. 

“All my dogs are tone-broke. So if I honk my horn and tone, they come to me, so I toned in, honked my horn, nothing, and that’s when the guy yelled from his house, can’t really say what he told me on camera, but he said that he pretty much shot my dog,” Steury said.

Diehl later told Indiana DNR Conservation Officer Gannery Htoo that he wasn’t taking any chances on getting bit. He went on to express his concerns to the officer about ongoing problems he had with dogs messing with their family chickens and other issues experienced on the property. 

While his original testimony to game wardens seemed relatively straight forward, court documents later revealed inconsistencies between Diehl’s story and the one his son told. The record even indicates that Diehl himself changed his tune between interviews conducted on February 2 and 4.

After the shooting, he called the Sheriff’s Office to report the shooting and eventually even let Steury retrieve his dog’s body. Following the permissive act, Diel soon changed his mind and eventually pushed for Steury to be charged with trespassing, a request that was quickly shut down.

The truth remains that judging from the court records, Diehl was not acting in the right frame of mind, seemingly changing his tune every step of the way. In addition to his wishy-washy testimony, Diehl has since proven himself to be a repeat offender. Reports indicated that Diehl  had also shot another neighbor’s dog in the chest back in 2021 after it wandered onto the same property. That dog was fortunate enough to survive, but it’s looking like Diehl won’t be so lucky this time around.

“I don’t want to see this happen to someone else’s dog. It’s not the dog’s fault. If you want to give me a trespassing ticket, I’ll pay my ticket, but don’t point-blank shoot the dog,” Steury said.

If convicted of the felony charge, he’s looking at anywhere between 6 months to 1½ years in prison, not to mention any additional fines and retribution payments that may also be levied against him.