Santa Barbara – Phillip Edmond Cummings is apparently no “dog whisperer”, as evidenced by events transpiring in a mid-town Santa Barbara residential neighborhood in the late morning of February 18th.
According to Santa Barbara Police Department Public Information Officer Sgt. Riley Harwood, Cummings—himself a dog owner—was walking down the street with his leashed canine “when he observed a neighbor’s dog unsecured in a shared driveway adjacent to their apartments.” Cummings, who, it seems, is of the conviction that his neighbor’s dog is a threatening, malevolent creature capable of bloody mayhem, promptly returned his dog to his residence…and shortly thereafter, according to witnesses, reappeared in the driveway brandishing a loaded 9mm semiautomatic handgun.
9mm and ammo seized by police
With the loaded pistol aimed at his neighbor’s dog, Harwood reported, Cummings, 41, was shouting at his neighbor’s dog, “yelling at it to ‘get back’ and to ‘get behind the fence’. While the offending canine’s breed was unspecified in Harwood’s media report, it was apparently of the non-English-speaking variety and failed to either comprehend or obey Cummings’ importations.
No doubt frustrated by his inability to verbally communicate with his neighbor’s dog, Cummings eventually retired to his residence, unaware that witnessing neighbors who had observed the brouhaha had called 911 Emergency at the sight of the handgun. Responding SBPD officers contacted Cummings at his apartment and took him into custody without further incident. He was then transported to Santa Barbara County Jail where he was booked on charges of possession of a loaded firearm in public, with his bail set at $35,000.
Photos: Courtesy Santa Barbara Police Department, Santa Barbara County Jail Booking
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