Gwinnett Police
In some extremely sad, but not unexpected news, another NFL player has committed a terrible act away from the football field. Atlanta Falcons second-year linebacker Prince Shembo has been charged with aggravated cruelty to animals for killing his then-girlfriend’s pet Yorkshire terrier (pictured above).
According to the Gwinnett County Police report, Shembo’s then-girlfriend Denicia Williams told police she had taken her pet dog, named Dior, to Shembo’s apartment and left it there. When she returned, the dog was unresponsive, and died a short time later at an animal hospital.
She claims that Shembo told her the next day that he had killed the dog, at which point she made the obvious decision and immediately broke up with him.
An autopsy found that Dior had suffered “significant internal injuries and the cause of death was blunt force trauma.”
This news is absolutely sickening. There’s no other way to put it. It’s not the team’s fault by any means, but Falcons’ players apparently need to be kept away from dogs.
The Falcons will face a lot of pressure to release Shembo, their 2014 fourth-round pick, and it’s a move they without a doubt should and need to make. The NFL needs to clean up its reputation off the field and coming down hard on Shembo would be a wise choice for more reasons than one.
UPDATE — The Falcons have waived Shembo according to NFL Network’s Adam Caplan.
Seth Lassen is a writer for RantSports. ‘Like’ him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter @Seth_Lassen.
