ATLANTA (Reuters) - An Atlanta Falcons football player faces charges of aggravated animal cruelty after being accused of killing his girlfriend's dog, police said on Friday.
Prince Shembo, 23, an outside linebacker drafted by the Falcons in 2014, told the girlfriend he kicked her Yorkie while alone with the dog at his suburban Atlanta apartment on April 15, Gwinnett County Police said in a statement.
She found the dog unresponsive at Shembo's apartment and rushed the pet to an animal hospital where it died, police said. After Shembo told the girlfriend he had kicked the dog, she "ended their relationship," police said.