Edgewater police today issued charges against the owner of a Rottweiler and pit bull involved in chasing a mail carrier then attacking two officers Monday afternoon.
Mario Carlos Gonzales, 46, faces six counts — three for each of two dogs — of having a vicious animal, animals running at large and failure to have rabies inoculation and tag.
An officer shot and killed the Rottweiler after it attacked the police, but the Gonzales family has hidden the pit bull, police spokesman Steven Davis said.
Gonzales will have to answer to a municipal judge at 9 a.m. on Aug. 9.
All the current charges are all municipal misdemeanors. Each count carries up to $999 in fines and 180 days in jail.
Police responded to a complaint that the same dogs chased the same mail carrier in May, and had issued a warning to the dog’s owner last year.
Records show Gonzales has had numerous run-ins with authorities, including a two-year prison sentence in 1995 after pleading guilty to an attempt to possess more than 8 ounces of marijuana.
He served a year of probation after an assault in a case characterized in court records as domestic violence in 2005. He also was sentenced to six months of probation after pleading guilty to forgery in Lakewood in January of last year.
The incident began Monday when the dogs tore through a window screen and chased the mail carrier in the 2400 block of Newland Street, about a block from Jefferson High School.
The postal carrier called 9-1-1 as he used mail to fend off the dogs’ attempts to bite him.
When police arrived, they found two teenaged girls trying to control the dogs.
The Rottweiler slipped lose, “ran full speed” toward the officers and attacked one of them, police said.
The dog bit him several times on the thigh before the officer escaped. The Rottweiler then attacked the other officer, who shot the dog in the head.
Both policemen were treated by paramedics for their injuries.
