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Teen Records Her Father Threatening To Cut Out The Eyes Of Her Dog, Then Slamming Her Into Bed Frame, Authorities Say
In the harrowing footage, Damon Becnel can allegedly be seen grabbing the dog by the throat, hurling it to the ground and threatening it with a knife as his distraught daughter begs for him to stop, according to a probable cause statement.
A Florida father is accused of threatening to cut out the eyes of his daughter’s dog before slamming the 14-year-old girl’s head into a bed frame.
Damon Becnel, 47, is now facing charges of child abuse and animal cruelty after the harrowing incident was allegedly captured on a video surveillance camera set up in the girl’s bedroom, according to a probable cause statement from the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office obtained by Oxygen.com.
In the video retrieved by authorities, the dog can be seen sitting on the teenager’s bed when Becnel allegedly pulls out a knife, points it at the dog and yells “I will cut this f---ing god damn dogs f---ing eyeballs out, I’ll f---ing do it,” the report said.
Authorities said the man in the footage, who they believe to be Becnel, then hits the dog, grabs the dog by the throat and throws it to the ground, authorities said.
As the dog is being attacked, the 14-year-old pleads for her father to stop and jumps on his back in an attempt to get him to stop abusing the dog, the report said.
Becnel allegedly then turns his attention to his daughter, grabbing her by the hair and pushing her into the bed frame.
In a second video capturing the incident, Becnel can allegedly be seen still clutching his daughter by the hair as he screams at her to “shut the f--- up,” the report states.
The graphic video, obtained by local station WEAR-TV, then shows the man captured in the footage letting go of the teen, but he continues to scream at her. Finally, he head butts his daughter sending her head “bouncing off the wall behind her” and causing her to cry, according to the report.
The teen reported the disturbing events to authorities on Dec. 24—the day after the alleged incident occurred at her Destin home. She also later provided the video footage.
Michele Nicholson, the public information officer for the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office, declined to comment on the teen’s current whereabouts and told Oxygen.com the matter was being handled by the Florida Department of Children and Families.
Allison Tringas, the mother of the teen, told WEAR-TV she was “absolutely horrified” after seeing the videos for the first time.
She told the station her daughter had tried to report the abuse for years, but her claims were not believed until she installed a Nest camera to capture incidents between the two.
“She absolutely knew that something bad was going to happen and nobody would believe her unless she had that on film,” Tringas said.
She called her daughter her “hero” for finding a way to report the abuse.
“She is one strong and one smart little girl and I couldn’t be more proud of her,” she told the station.
Becnel, a prominent local business owner, is expected to appear before a judge on Feb. 4, according to The Walton Sun.
