Alleged Firecracker Dog Killer Jailed After Court Appearance

A Joliet man charged with blowing the face off a pit bull with a firework he tossed to the dog was jailed after he appeared in court Monday morning.

Prosecutors had previously requested an increase on the $5,000 bail 24-year-old Nicholas Garcia posted for his freedom last month. Garcia paid up at the Joliet police station to avoid a trip to the Will County jail. But that’s just where Garcia found himself Monday morning following a court appearance on charges of criminal damage to property.

Garcia was arrested in July for allegedly enticing a pit bull to pick up a lit firework so it would blow off the dog’s face.

Garcia and another man were lighting off the fireworks in a Jackson Street alley when the pit bull picked one up, police said. The firework reportedly went off in the dog’s mouth, killing it.
Garcia intentionally and repeatedly tossed the fireworks so the dog would chase them and pick them up, police said.

The man lighting fireworks in the alley with Garcia will not be charged in connection with the pit bull’s gruesome death, according to a police source.

Garcia was less than remorseful about the dog’s demise, according to a screenshot of his Facebook page posted by a Patch reader.

“Lightin off the rest of my fireworks n the rerarded neighbors that dont know how to put their dog on leash or keep it fenced in decides to chase a boom stick and lost its head…..NOW they care about their dog,” Garcia’s post said, according to the screenshot.

The day after his arraignment on the dog-killing case, Garcia was caught with even more fireworks while he was driving around the east side, police said.

The cops stopped Garcia near the corner of Jackson and Chicago streets. When he rolled down his window, police said, an officer smelled marijuana and saw bits of weed on a passenger’s lap. The officer also reportedly noticed Garcia slipping something into the car’s center console.

That something turned out to be a few baggies of marijuana, police said. An officer then searched the car and reportedly found Red Dahlia and Nitro Bomb fireworks.

Garcia was again arrested after the traffic stop but was released on his own recognizance.