WESTMINSTER, Md. — What started as a woman and three small children making s’mores behind their house in a remote area west of Eldersburg on Saturday night turned into chaos when 52-year-old John Mallory, Jr. returned home apparently drunk.
A man who lives in the area who does not wish to be identified says he knew something was wrong.
“The helicopter was circling around the house, I guess, looking for a place to land,” the neighbor told us. “I heard the dog attacked somebody and the dog got shot.”
According court records, Mallory locked his arm around one of the children’s necks and then got into it with his wife, ultimately bringing a handgun outside and pointing it at her before stumbling and falling to the ground.
That’s when ‘Rambo’, one of the family dogs, attacked him, biting him in the foot and causing him to drop the gun.
“That’s what dogs do,” the neighbor told us. “Dogs are supposed to be protectors especially of children. They’ve been that way since recorded history.”
Ultimately, the mother and one of the children were also bitten in the fray before Mallory retrieved a second handgun from the house and shot and killed the dog.
According to charging documents, he would later tell deputies he had mixed alcohol consumption with Valium and didn’t remember driving home or seeing his wife and children, but he did remember the dog biting him.
“Dogs are a pretty good judge of character,” the suspect’s neighbor explained. “and that dog probably had a pretty good idea of what was going on, and the dog was probably in the right if I had to guess.”
Mallory now faces a series of charges including First and Second Degree Assault, and Reckless Endangerment.
