Lewis County Sirens.com

Updated at 8:56 p.m.

By Sharyn  L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter

CENTRALIA – Police are looking for three males who barged into a Centralia home last night, demanded money and shot a dog.

Centralia police say one of the subjects fired a number of times at the pet, killing it but none of the residents were injured.

The suspects then fled and are still at large, according to the Centralia Police Department.

It happened about 10:35 p.m. on the 1200 block of Marion Street, at the north end of town, according to police.

Dustin Palermo said he and his girlfriend had just settled into bed to watch a movie, when he heard a thump on the door.

“My door’s flying open, these black men rush in, shooting guns, screaming,” he said. “They shot up my room and killed my dog.”

The 35-year-old Centralia native said they were shouting about money and weed and rummaging through things. He shoved his girlfriend into a corner and told her not to move, then pushed a jar of cannabis on the floor toward the intruders, he said.

They were in and out in about 30 seconds, but it seemed much longer, he said.

The firearm was described as a handgun.

Palermo said his two pit bulls were inside with him and his 25-year-old girlfriend. Misty was just protecting her family he said.

“The male, Bruno, he’s taking it pretty hard,” he said.

Detectives are working on the case.

Detective Patty Finch said they have no idea of the motive at this point.

“The victims don’t claim to know the suspects, there’s not a clear picture as to why they were targeted,” Finch said this afternoon.

They processed the scene, interviewed witnesses and recovered some shell casings. They’re not sure yet how many shots were fired, she said.

Palermo’s mother lives in the main house on the property, with his four children and three other of her grandchildren.

Pam Vasquez said she was out with a girlfriend, but the youngsters, ages 10 to 18, were upstairs in bed when it happened. She rushed home after getting a phone call and found several police cars there, their dog dead on the front porch.

“It was just crazy,” she said. “I never would have expected this, in Centralia.”

Palermo said he thinks one of the males was probably in his mid-20s, but has no idea who they were or why they came to his house.

The large extended family has lived on the property where Marion Street turns to Little Hanaford Road for about four years. His “house” is actually a roughly 300-square-foot shack Vasquez says was the original homestead. Palermo created a bedroom on one side.

On the other side, he has a small amount of medical marijuana growing, for himself and another patient, he said. The former Navy corpsman said he uses it for anxiety and chronic back pain. He came home from Iraq in 2003, he said.

But he didn’t feel like that’s why they were there, he said.

“I don’t know if it’s because we went to the casino the night before and won some money, I don’t know if it was random,” he said.

The family showed police their security video. Palermo looked at it again this morning.

It shows the men drive off in a small two-door car, almost like a Honda Accord or a Saturn, with a spoiler on the back, he said. Finch said the car was said to have a loud muffler.
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CORRECTION: This has been updated to reflect the correct time police were called.

 

Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter

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