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Man Charged With Using Paintball Gun To Shoot Neighbor's Dogs In Brooklyn

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Two pets were blasted with paint, and wounded in their own backyard, in an awful case of animal cruelty in Brooklyn.

Police charged a man they said opened fire on the dogs with a paintball gun, CBS 2's Dave Carlin reported.

Peter Wojcik was in shock that anyone would deliberately do this – his beloved dogs, Baby and Birdie, were covered in cuts and bruises, with the animals and his backyard splattered with paint.

"He unnecessarily shot my dogs," Wojcik said.

Paintball guns are meant for fun, but one was used as a weapon to injure the two dogs from three buildings away and four stories up.

Police said Himrod Street neighbor Daniel Lacin was so annoyed at the dogs' barking that he opened fire on them from above.

Wojcik said he never heard a single complaint from Lacin before hearing the "tat tat tat" sounds of paintball fire, accompanied by the yelping of his dogs.

"Why wouldn't you speak to me if there is a problem?" Wojcik said. "My dogs aren't barking dogs."

Baby got the worst of it, hit three times in the face and many more times on her body. The paint may have been gone on Friday, but the injuries remained.

Lacin was charged with possession of a weapon, criminal mischief and torturing animals. Freed without bail, he did not open the door for CBS 2 on Friday.

"I won't answer any questions until June 28," he said via phone.

On that day, June 28, Lacin is due back in court. He hung up before CBS 2 could ask him any details about Wednesday's alleged attack.

Lacin's roommate said he only recently bought the paintball gun.

Wojcik said the dogs are now nervous to return to the backyard, that place of paint and pain.

Lacin's attorney, Elizabeth Latimer, had not returned CBS 2's calls for comment as of Friday evening.

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