Ansonia resident Gary Menna Sr. was working in Naugatuck last Thursday night when his son’s girlfriend called.
“They got Max,” she said, referring to Menna’s 21-year-old son, Max Delgado.
Delgado had skipped court on drug and gun charges and had just been snagged by bounty hunters at the family’s Cedar Street residence.
Menna rushed home.
He says he got there about 7:30 p.m. to find his son in handcuffs, covered in cuts and bruises.
What’s more — one of his three dogs was lying in blood and excrement. A bail agent had shot the animal after it bit his partner.
The dog — a 3‑year-old pit bull named Bullet — died the next morning on the operating table at Shoreline Veterinary Hospital in Shelton.
“The bounty hunter shot my dog in the back, piercing his abdomen. His intestines were severed,” Menna said.
Menna said Bullet had never bitten anybody before and was simply defending his owner.
“This is a family member I lost,” he said, referring to his dog. “I believe excessive force was used and they definitely did not have a right to shoot my dog on my property.”
Furthermore, he said one of the bounty hunters threatened him after Menna arrived home to find his dog badly wounded.
“I was cursing, swearing,” Menna said. “I was at least a good 10 to 15 feet from this gentleman and he says ‘You better back up before I shoot you also.’”
However, the bounty hunters involved said Menna’s son sicced the dog on them. They said they had no choice but to defend themselves.
“He (Max Delgado) sicced a pit bull on us and the pit bull bit one of our guys,” said bounty hunter Henry Adams, who fired the fatal shot. “What would you do?”
Ansonia police are investigating the incident. No charges have been filed.
Bounty Hunters Speak
Adams and John Evans are licensed bail enforcement agents who subcontract for Aces Bail Bonds in Bridgeport. Adams has been a bounty hunter for 12 years. Evans, eight years.
Adams said he never threatened to shoot Menna.
“I never did that. He came up into my face. I didn’t raise my hands, or become aggressive or anything,” Adams said.
The dog bit Evans, who was treated and released the same night (June 14) at Griffin Hospital. He backed up his colleague’s account.
The two say they went to the house armed, knowing Delgado was wanted for blowing off his first court appearance the week before. And the alleged crimes weren’t minor — they were felonies involving a gun and drugs.
That wasn’t all they knew.
“We knew he had dogs,” Evans said. “We were told he had dogs.”
The bounty hunters said they tried to apprehend Delgado when he was outside and the dogs were inside.
Evans said Delgado was on the back steps of the house, saw he was about to be taken down, and tried to go inside the house.
“When I came around the side, he got up and took off inside the house,” Evans said. The bondsmen pursued. Evans managed to grab Delgado by the shirt and a scuffle ensued, he said.
As Evans and Delgado wrestled, the dog came from within the house and attacked Evans, biting him in the leg.
Meanwhile, Adams, who was still in the front yard, could hear the commotion.
“All I heard was (Evans) yelling ‘The dog! The dog got me! The dog!’” Adams said.
He said he ran to the rear of the home and found Evans and Delgado fighting and screaming, with Bullet, the pit bull, latched to Evans’ leg.
“They were struggling on the ground and then the dog had him, and that’s when I came around.”
“I kicked the dog off of him at first,” Adams said. “Then he came back at me and I just had nowhere to run, and that’s when what happened happened.”
He fired a single shot into the dog.
“What was I going to do, leave my partner on the ground bleeding and fighting?”
Evans and Adams blamed Delgado — who is now being held at Bridgeport Correctional Center in lieu of $350,000 bond — for the dog’s death.
“The kid knew what we were there for. Even if he got in the house and stayed in the house, you’re done. You’re caught,” Evans said.
“Why open the door and let the the dogs out? We tried to avoid all that because we knew he had dogs in the house,” he added. “If he just stayed there nothing would have happened.”
Only Option?
Menna acknowledged his son isn’t a saint — but said the bounty hunters should have had other options available.
“You could have Tased my son,” Menna said. “You could have Tased the dog.”
The bounty hunters said any injuries to Delgado were sustained because he kept fighting them. Adams said they don’t carry Tasers and a can of mace was knocked out of the his hand during the struggle.
Menna also disputed their assertion the dog was essentially being used as a weapon.
“Those dogs can’t be sicced on anybody,” Menna said. “When you’re entering a piece of property with guns in hand, you’re looking for trouble.”
Now, Menna says he’s left with a vet bill between $10,000 and $15,000.
“I want to raise as much hell as possible and I want this to be taken care of,” he said. “I want legal ramifications, civil, whatever is possible.”
Ansonia Police Chief Kevin Hale said police, who were not involved with Thursday’s incident but responded after the fight and shooting, are investigating the matter.
Bounty hunters are licensed by a special unit of the state police, Hale said. Ansonia police are reviewing Adams’ use of force “to make sure laws were followed.”
“We’ve got to talk to the state with some questions,” Hale said. “Just looking at it from a distance it appears the use of force was proper, but we’ll determine that to make sure.”
Bail enforcement agents are allowed to carry guns after going through a permitting process, just like any other citizen, according to the state police.
“They’re no different than anybody else,” said Lt. J. Paul Vance, a state police spokesman. “They’re really civilians making citizens’ arrests.”
“Just like any other citizen, they’re regulated by law as to the utilization and carrying of them,” Vance added.
Adams and Evans said they’d never experienced anything similar in 20 combined years in their line of work.
Both welcomed any investigation into what happened because they said they will be cleared of any wrong-doing.
“I’ve never had to use my weapon before, ever,” Adams said. “Trust me. I’m an animal lover. I have my own animals. I didn’t want to do that. But I didn’t have a choice.”
