82-year-old man guns down 11-year-old girl and her father in row over dog

A dog is a man’s best friend. But sometimes we love our pooches a little too much, especially when other people don’t love them back.

Just weeks after a woman in Colorado was allegedly shot dead in a row over dog poop, another argument over a canine has also cost three people in Florida their lives.

The trio, including the alleged shooter, died after an incident this week that stemmed from a neighborhood dispute over a dog, according to law enforcement officials.

One of the dead is an 11-year-old girl, said Port St. Lucie Police Department Assistant Chief Richard Del Toro. A Port St. Lucie police officer was wounded after the suspect exchanged gunfire with an officer and a sheriff’s deputy.

“When the call came out … the caller said there’s someone in our house and shooting my parents,” Sheriff Ken Mascara told USA Today.

Del Toro said police received reports of people shot in a home. Officers found an adult man dead, while an 11-year-old girl was critically injured. She later died at a hospital. The incident happened at about 12:30 pm on Monday.

A neighbor, Frank Didonna, 81, said he heard gunshots and then saw police cars arrive.

“All the sudden I heard about four or five shots, one after the other, boom, boom, boom,” Didonna said.

The victims of the tragic incident were later named as Guy Alexander Hansman, 55, and his daughter, Harper Hansman, 11. Police said they were shot and killed by their neighbor, identified as Ronald Delserro, 82, at a home in the 2500 block of SE Morningside Boulevard.

“Our officers encountered the suspect inside the victim’s home,” Del Toro said. “Our officers and a deputy, actually, who was working at the school across the street, responded to the scene immediately and exchanged gunfire with the suspect.”

Police say the suspect and the victims were neighbors who had been having a dispute over the suspect’s dog. On Monday morning, both parties had been in court, where the dog was deemed dangerous.

“They all came home from court, and then the suspect armed himself and went to the victims’ house,” Mascera said.

A tradesman who had been working on a home in the neighborhood told TV station WPTV he saw the gunman’s wife moments after the shots rang out. “She said, ‘I hope he didn’t do something stupid.’”

A police officer was shot in the arm during the encounter with the gunman. The wound is not life-threatening.