Hi, I’m Steve Heltsley. And on August 10, 2024, myself and my wife Diana, had six people canvasing the town trying to find our two pups (Thunder and Alta) who had gotten out of our fence. At the time they got out, we had a repairman repairing the fence. I called the police to let them know what was going on. The police said they may have our brown dog, Alta, which is a Red Heeler, and may know where the black one is, and that they would tell us more when we come for the brown dog.
The news was worse than we ever thought possible. We were devastated, our sweet, loving, caring black lab Thunder was shot and killed in town across the street from the village park. We later found out, Alta had found three adolescents and led them to Thunder in attempt to help his brother. But it was too late for Thunder.
We patiently waited for the police report to be completed, hoping it would shed some understanding for this result. There is no proof of our dog’s wrongdoing, except they escaped our fenced yard to go on a run. I had requested body camera footage of the officer doing their investigation, as well as surveillance footage from the park. The body camera footage is all we were provided, and it only included the officer’s interaction with the shooter. It did not include the officer talking with us or identifying Thunder. We did not take our own pictures as the officer had his camera running to catch everything. However, it does not include us finding cat food in Thunders mouth. The officer said, he must have gotten hungry after he was shot (Really?!).
Alta is now living in a home with a cat and getting along fine.
After reviewing our information, please join us for justice for Thunder and contact Chief of Police Bobby Coles in South Roxana, IL and inquire with him, as to how he finds this an act of self-defense. Let him know he should do what is right and charge the man with reckless discharge of a firearm in town and across from a public park. We need to protect our citizens and pets from people like this.
Phone: 618-254-7460 #4 ext. 1
Email: bcoles@southroxana.org