Chris Lucas and Lise the now deceased dog | Cohasset Police
A 59-year-old Massachusetts man is now up against multiple charges, including animal cruelty, after police say he fatally shot his wife's 14-year-old dog from a second-floor window last summer while claiming to hunt coyotes.
Christopher Lucas was arrested on Monday following a months-long investigation into the August 16, 2025, incident at a home in the quiet Cohasset neighborhood. According to the Cohasset Police Department, Lucas discharged a firearm from a room above his garage, striking the family pet, named Lise, in the head as the dog stood in the driveway.
“She was in the front yard of her residence in Cohasset, with her two dogs, when her husband fired a gun that struck one of her dogs in the head,” Prosecutor Kelsey Shea said. “She stated that the dog that was struck was not on a leash at the time, and she was standing approximately five feet away from the dog.”
The entire event was captured on the home's security camera system as footage from the scene reportedly shows the shooting and a family member visibly distraught, crying over the dying animal.
Police stated that Lucas claimed he was attempting to target coyotes in the area and despite that rock-solid defense, he just so happened to be without a number of legal requirements to do so. In addition to being without a valid Massachusetts hunting license, he also took the shot outside the legal coyote hunting season and within 500 feet of occupied dwellings, which included neighboring homes, violating state firearm laws.
Reports indicated that Lucas even went so far as to gather up the dead body after the shot and drove it to Maine for a proper burial.
Following the arrest, authorities suspended Lucas's license to carry firearms and seized multiple firearms from the residence. He was arraigned Tuesday morning in Quincy District Court on charges of animal cruelty, discharge of a firearm within 500 feet of a dwelling, hunting without a license and hunting out of season.
"This was a deeply disturbing incident that involved the unlawful discharge of a firearm in a residential neighborhood and the tragic killing of a family pet," Cohasset Police Chief William Quigley said in a statement.
