Lake City, AR – (JonesboroRightNow.com) – A Lake City employee faces multiple charges after investigators said he kicked a dog during one incident and filed a false report regarding the shooting of another dog.
Cameron Tyler Casey, 34, appeared before District Judge David Boling on Jan. 23, who found probable cause to charge him with filing a false report with law enforcement, a class D felony, and two counts of cruelty to animals, an unclassified misdemeanor.
According to the affidavit, on Dec. 30, 2025, the Criminal Investigation Division of the Craighead County Sheriff’s Office received a copy of a Lake City police report for a dog being shot by Casey, an animal control officer for the city. The sheriff’s office was asked to help with the investigation.
The report stated that on Dec. 22, 2025, Casey said he had received complaints about an alleged aggressive dog at large in the city. Casey told police he tried using a dart gun to capture the dog, but was unsuccessful.
The dog then charged, at which point Casey said he shot the dog with a gun to defend himself. Body camera footage of the incident was requested from Lake City Police. In the footage, Casey can be seen and heard denying that he shot the dog.
During the investigation, it was learned that, on Oct. 2, 2025, Casey was accused of being involved in another incident while he was a dog catcher, where he was asked to help with a dog by its owner.
The affidavit said Casey could be seen and heard on the video attempting to grab the dog, a small breed Chihuahua named Hank, which appeared to bite him on the hand after grabbing the dog. In response, Casey dropped Hank on the concrete and kicked it across the yard “from what appeared to be frustration.”
“Hank could be seen flipping head over heels through the air prior to hitting the ground and rolling over before he could get to his feet and run from Casey,” the document said, adding that Hank was never able to get back home as he was run over by a vehicle sometime after the incident.
The sheriff’s office said it soon discovered Casey had active warrants for his arrest. According to NEA Report, Casey was arrested Jan. 2 in Baxter County on charges of first-degree criminal impersonation of an officer and forgery. He was taken to the Craighead County Detention Center soon after.
While at the jail, a criminal investigator interviewed Casey about events that occurred on Dec. 22, 2025. Casey told the investigator that he was going to a ditch in the city to set a trap to try to catch stray dogs that hung out there.
He said that the dogs normally would run from him, but did not this time. He turned around, and the dogs became aggressive toward him, at which point he shot a single shot from a .22 caliber rifle to scare the dogs off.
Casey said he did not mean to hit a dog, but in the process, the affidavit said he shot a dog known to Brian Bass as Cujo. After the dogs ran off, Casey found Cujo in Bass’ yard and took it to euthanize it.
Casey said that he did not have a dart gun with him and only had the rifle at the time of the incident, but in the police report, it was said that Casey told officers that he attempted to shoot Cujo first with a dart gun before shooting it with the rifle.
Casey was then asked about an incident that occurred on Oct. 2, 2025 involving Hank. He told the investigator that the dog’s owner contacted Lake City if they could help catch Hank until someone could get there to get the dog.
The affidavit said that Casey did not take the proper equipment to catch Hank and had been told to get the dog and take it home with him until the owner returned because “he was not going to put a little dog like that in the pound.”
When Casey arrived, Hank was sitting on the front porch of the home. Casey said he shouted for the dog, but could not get him to come. The two went around the back of the house, and Casey tried playing with Hank to come to him. Casey said he messed up and picked the dog up. This caused the dog to turn his head and bite Casey’s hand, at which point Casey dropped him and “shoed him away” according to the affidavit.
Casey said that he wasn’t frustrated after being bitten, saying “he was a six-foot-tall, 180-pound man, and the dog was an eight-pound Chihuahua, that any kind of brush was going to roll him,” and he did not intend to launch the dog, the investigator recalled.
Casey is being held in the Craighead County Detention Center on a temporary $50,000 cash/surety bond. As a condition of his bond, Casey is not allowed to have pets.
Casey’s next court appearance is scheduled for March 19.
