Pit Bull Used in Home Invasion in Bristol

.BRISTOL, Va. – Two men were arrested after police say they tried to break into an Old Abingdon Highway home just after midnight Monday to sic a pit bull on the man who lives there.

According to a news release issued Monday by the city’s Police Department, the two men tried to flee on foot when they heard approaching sirens.

The older of the two men, Roy Edward Vance Jr., 44, of New Hampshire Avenue, was arrested within minutes on the train tracks 150 yards behind the home. The other got away with the dog, police said.

Police said he hid in the bushes while a K-9 unit, the SWAT team and a Virginia State Police helicopter combed the area. They gave up the search at 3 a.m. because the thick underbrush surrounding Beaver Creek and the railroad tracks made spotting the suspect impossible.

Christopher Heflin, 29, of Main Court, turned himself in just before 4 a.m., according to an employee at the Bristol Virginia Jail.

Both are charged with breaking and entering with the intent to commit felony malicious wounding. Vance also was charged with public intoxication. Both were released Monday afternoon on a $2,500 bond.

Police Capt. Maynard Ratcliff said the incident was part of an ongoing fight over a woman.

Connie White, 37, of Main Court, said she is that woman. She said Vance, her brother-in-law, and Heflin, her boyfriend, were trying to protect her from an ex-boyfriend who threatened Sunday afternoon to burn her trailer with her children inside after a confrontation at a nearby gas station.

Heflin said later that night that he and Vance walked the mile or so down the railroad tracks to the ex-boyfriend’s home to “get it done, one-on-one without the kids around.” They took Blaze, a 13-month-old sandy brown pit bull, he said.
Police said the resident recalled that the pair tried to force the door open and push the dog through.

Heflin, however, said they left the dog in the yard and knocked on the door to try to get the man to come outside. He appeared in the door with a baseball bat and a telephone, and said he was calling police, he added.

The man at the house on Old Abingdon Highway, who was not identified by police, did not answer the door Monday evening.

"We did not enter the house; we did not go through the door. We were on his porch."
He says his pit bull, Blaze, never approached the house.
"The dog was nowhere on his property. He was across the street on another property when it happened,” said Heflin.

Heflin said neither he nor Vance ran. Heflin said he walked with the dog to White’s sister’s home, unaware that police were searching for him. According to Heflin, the dog wouldn't hurt anyone.

Heflin says the victim had made previous threats against his girlfriend, Connie White.
That's why Heflin decided to confront the victim last night."This guy has been giving us problems for about a year and a half now,” Heflin said.

However, the police are still convinced that the dog was intended to be used against the victim. "I haven't seen too many cases where somebody wanted to use an animal as a weapon against somebody else, but we feel like that was the case in this instance," Captain Ratcliffe said.

Detective Sgt. Steve Crawford, said Heflin admitted to police that he eluded them by hiding in thick brush.

When he was released from jail Monday, Vance said he went to the hospital with cuts and bruises and several black boot marks on his white T-shirt.

Police said Vance was drunk and fell several times over the railroad tracks while trying to escape. According to Sgt. Tim Sexton, the arresting officer could not handcuff him immediately because he was alone and the suspect with the pit bull was still at large, so he pinned Vance down while he waited for back-up.

Vance was discharged from the hospital Monday afternoon with bruised ribs.

Both men charged in the home invasion are out of jail this evening on $2500 bond