Deputies Kill Pit Bull Guarding Cocaine Stash

Sheriff’s deputies chasing a group of gang members shot and killed a pit bull guarding a stash of rock cocaine and weapons in a doghouse, officials said Tuesday.

The incident began shortly after 10 p.m. Monday when a man flagged down a sheriff’s patrol car and said he had been robbed of $20, Deputy Roger Hom said.

The victim said the muggers had fled to a house at in the 11100 block of New Hampshire Avenue in Los Angeles, where deputies entered the rear yard and encountered a man and four teen-agers.

One of the boys, who according to Hom were members of a local gang, threw a plastic bag into a doghouse guarded by a pit bull on a 15-foot chain.

Deputies lured the dog away from the doghouse while one of them reached inside to retrieve the bag. The dog later charged the deputies, and one of them fired two shots, killing the dog, Hom said.

The man, Reuben Almonte, 29, and the teen-agers were arrested.