An animal control officer trying to save pets from a foreclosed California home was shot to death by the former owner, authorities said.
The officer had gone to the Sacramento-area home after the resident, Joseph Corey, allegedly called and said he could not care for them because he was being evicted by his bank.
The animal control officer went to the home in the community of Galt on Wednesday.
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He was accompanied by a representative of the bank that had foreclosed on the home, the Sacramento sheriff’s department said.
Corey, who had been evicted from the home the day before, answered their knock with a shotgun blast through the door, sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Jason Ramos said in a press release.
The shot hit the animal control officer in the upper body, Ramos said.
The officer, whose name is being withheld while officials notify his family, was pronounced dead at the scene, and Corey held police at bay in a standoff that lasted several hours, Ramos said.
Corey was arrested at about 5 a.m. Thursday, Ramos said.


No Trial needed for this fool. Just give him the needle NOW, before he costs the tax payers any money.
Then he won't have to worry about finding a new home so...win/win. Honestly this fool shouldn't be in public, he murdered an innocent man and for what? There's no reason at all, he just blindly shot through the door, thank goodness it wasn't a kid, but it's already tragic that he murdered an innocent man who was just doing his job.
Planned muder. He called them and asked them to come over. He knew who on the other side of that door before he pulled the trigger. I say let the officers family take turns shooting him.
This is California he'll sit on death row until after my Grandchildren are born I'm sure.
It's actually more expensive to put an inmate on death row rather than incarcerate them...
@James... not sure what you mean by this because incarcerate means to lock someone up. If someone is on death row they are incarcerated. I THINK you meant to say that executing someone costs more than putting them on death row because of the cost of the appeal process. That's a proven fact based on years of data.
That's fine - 30 or 40 years on death row should be more stressful than life-without-parole, so it's a good thing. The extra cost of the appeals, extra security, etc. is worth it for society - legally justified torture. Even better, tease him with false hints of possible mercy from time to time. Then yank the rug out. Besides, consider the job security for the raft of attorneys on both sides - this could be a retirement gig for at least 4 of them, more if it takes the scum longer to die his 'natural death'.
This waste-of-oxygen invited a man to his house, then murdered him through the door - a more cowardly act has never occurred.
James is actually correct, it does cost more (legal procedures, blah blah blah) to execute someone in CA than to incarcerate them for life... you know, I honestly believe that a bullet to the back of the head that he doesn't see coming would be a much more humane method of disposing of this piece of human waste than the whole bloody death row procedure. Any doubt of his guilt? Any possibility that he could make a defense for himself? If yes, let him go through the procedures. If it's absolutely certain he murdered this guy just because he was throwing a pissy fit, bullet in the back of the head a few seconds after the jury says "Guilty".
The economic stresses of our time is pushing some people over the edge. And then an innocent man just doing his job pays the price. And it's only going to get worse. Truly scary.
God bless america, land of the homeless and armed.
Oh to hell with you... it is still better here than most any other country... you have more freedoms as a result of those weapons than you would in another country... This guy did this on purpose and if he didn't have a gun, he would have found another way... end result being the same..
Prayers to the Family of the Animal Control worker. What a doucebag this guy is, Do what wasci said end of story.
What an @!$%#! He intentionally lured the officer in and then ambushed him. This dude needs to be removed from the gene pool.
Lesson 1 - don't go to the house that has been foreclosed on by the bank with a representative of the bank!
I think the term "collateral damage" sadly applies here. I suspect the homeonwer saw the bank rep and the animal control officer happend to catch the blast intended for the Banker.
Obviously no excuse for committing murder of course, but the world will go as it will, not as you or I would have it.
You make a good point. It's difficult to come up with another reason for this craziness without more info
Wonder if the bank guy ducked behind the animal control person. Bank guy would have been the more cautious of the two.
Had to be accompanied by someone with a key - the murderer said that the animals were locked in the house.
Animal control - change your procedures to include police escorts for any call involving foreclosure, divorce, domestic dispute, or if any party involved has a protective order against them, or in their favor. It will require research, and sadly a few animals could die while the facts are gathered. But the lives of a few thousand domestic pets are not worth the life of one innocent person who was just trying to do his job.
Wow that's crazy. He's the one that called them and he'd already lost the house. It's almost like the dude wanted to die or something
No, not crazy...he wanted government subsidized housing and meals for the rest of his life. He got it. God bless the victim's family.
Yep. He'll get three hots and a cot 'till they give him the shot.
They don't execute in California. Just 3 hots and cot for the rest of his life.
Not true gday67, proposition 34 was defeated.
Premeditated murder one. Sorry he lost his home and all, but this was cowardly. His living structure was taken from him against his will, but he willingly surrendered his dignity, honor and humanity. It's just concrete and wood. Take your lumps and move on. Don't start killing people over it.
Condolences to the animal control officer's family and friends. He died in the line of duty.
California hasn't dealt out the death penalty punishment for decades. He was probably hoping for "death by cop".
Maybe. But with suicide-by-cop, you have to let the cop shoot first!
AvgJoeTX,I'm a Californian and although we have sentenced many to death the bleeding hearts in charge refuse to carry out the wishes iof the majority of voters.It is pathetic and costly to allow these death row inmates to spend decades behind bars while the victims never receive justice.Jurors in Sacramento have no problem meting out the death penalty.
No, actually we have sentenced many people to death row and have executed thirteen inmates in the past few decades. But you'd rather just be angry for the sake of being angry.
I say that once a week, death row inmates should go into a private room. Lock them in at 9 a.m. and give them an option: take the cyanide pills that we provide, or go back to your regular death row lock-up at 5 p.m. See how many of them hang around for years on end versus ending it quickly.
A little Google goes a long way...
There are currently 724 inmates on death row in California (as of 4/12). None - ZERO - have been executed since 2008, which is as far back as I looked. Since 1976, only 13 have been executed. For a state that repeatedly has voted to keep the death penalty, there is not much of it actually being carried out.
Let the condemned inmates pile up - years on death row is a more tortuous punishment than a quick IV, and therefore more just. Besides, there is a possibility than one of them did not commit the crime that triggered the sentence. If they remain alive, the sentence can be corrected.
No one has been executed in California since 2006. Further executions are on hold pending the results of a lawsuit on the legality of lethal injection.
What a scumbag.
It's all the bank's fault. They didn't make sure this man paid his mortgage on time every month, and they allowed him to fall behind to the point that the bank had to retake the property they paid for. Those evil banks should have just given the guy the house free and clear of any mortgage.
I know, man. What is this world coming to, right? Well, no sweat. He's living free and clear of the house now.
Dawgfan, that is truly the most stupid comment I have ever read. Sure, the big bad banks are the reason for all the psycho's out there. Because people had guns held to their heads to sign mortgage papers and were forced to make those commitments. Tired of all the liberal crap about poor homeowners. Bad things happen to good people and losing a house is hardly a reason to commit murder. Get Over your hatred of banks and using this as some kind of platform to blame banks. The reality is that most homeowners lost their homes due to bad decisions they made. They need a scapegoat to hind from their own stupidity.
Uh, 2 crazy labs, your sarcasm detector is turned off. Dawgfan was clearly being sarcastic.
That a man who devoted his life to kindness to ending suffering, died such a terrible death is tragic. Thousands of animals die a slow and agonizing death abandoned when their owners lose their homes to foreclosure. Shelters are full of wonderful pets needing good homes. I takes tremendous strength to face so much suffering and cruelty every day and not become overwhelmed by despair. Animal control officers and social
workers have the hardest jobs in the world. To deliberately take the life of anyone is monstrous to murder someone so good is pure evil.
As far as the social workers go, once in a while one can be found that is hardly working and is just a kook too.
fgh- my sister is a social worker who has a case log so backed up she had to work Thanksgiving and is always on call, yet they freeze her pay and force them to take furlough days with no pay. Now you look pretty kooky.
Please. No pet dies abandoned because of foreclosure. Foreclosure is a slow-motion process between first notice and physical eviction (in most states it takes at least a year.) Pets that die abandoned are victims of the evil "owners" who cannot be bothered to find a replacement owner, or call a shelter or rescue organization, or take the pets to a shelter or pound.
These people likely had time to move their personal property (while stealing the ceiling fans, doors, permanently-installed appliances that came with the house, garage door openers, and copper pipe out of the walls.) But they had no time to make arrangements for the poor helpless pets. Did they dump their rugrats with the house also? In many cases the kids would be better off. The pet owners are just as responsible for the welfare of the pets, as they are for the care of the children.
Another depressed/upset American "citizen" taking out his frustrations on innocent people with a gun. I'm so sick of these stories. I've never been a gun-control type of guy.. but gradually turning into one.
There is NO excuse to own a weapon unless you are hunting wild game. The End.
just like nobody likes the wealthiest "1%" controlling our country, please don't let the less than 1% of gun-owners-who-do-something-bad affect the other 99+% of us who are law abiding and actually help deter crime (by virtue of: if the baddies don't know who is armed, they are less likely to be bad).
This was the cruelest thing a person could do to another human being.He was there to rescue this man's animals,that is if he had any in the first place.Thankfully we voted to keep the death penalty in California and hopefully this is what the shooter will get.People in Sacramento aren't the bleeding hearts jurors like the Bay area is.
Bye bye pal, death penalty for you..enjoy HELL!
Well, at least he doesn't have to worry anymore about having a place to live. An awful lot of room mates though.
Hey, so do you think he can sue for having his Right To Bear Arms taken away?
People who are now losing homes to foreclosure aren't the sub-prime borrowers who had no business buying a house in the first place. That bunch were the first to get kicked out. I'd like to know more about the circumstances surrounding why this guy was foreclosed on now & what connection there is between his character, the foreclosure, & the fact that he is so low as to lure a pet rescuer to his former property for the purpose of murdering someone. There is so much scum passing as human beings & to lose a soul who was there to show a kindness to abandoned animals to such a piece of scum really rankles. Of all the people the world doesn't need, I think that would be the foreclosed guy, not the animal rescuer.
Too bad he didn't get the bank officer instead.
What a stupid comment! ...too bad that someone was so completely evil and selfish that he took the life of an innocent person whom he invited to his home.
Too bad he didn't take the pets to a shelter or rescue org, then put the shotgun in his mouth and do his best Hemingway impression. The significant brain shower would be his sweet revenge against the bank that tried to hold him to the contract he willingly signed.
[mispost, ignore]
This guy should be beat to hell in the face with the butt of the shotgun. What if this was a girl scout selling cookies? This is pure cold blood murder. He intended to kill whoever was on the other side of the door and I hope he get's the fast lane to the death penalty. You thought getting foreclosed and evicted was bad, oh gee where shall I go? Welp, looks like you do not have to worry about residential accommodations or wardrobe for that matter, probably for the rest of your pathetic miserable life!
I'd like to know what all parties involved knew!
Good thing we let everyone in this country have guns, so we can kill people just trying to do their jobs. We love our guns in this country. When you have a bad day, and and loaded weapon, go and shoot someone, it don't matter. The NRA will defend your right. Remember NRA says, only criminals will have guns if the government takes away guns from "good honest" folks. Well let the NRA spin this one. How many bodies of innocent people must be piled on the heap of the already dead before Congress stops being scared of the NRA. Shame on the NRA, this blood is on your hands.
The NRA didn't have anything to do with causing an eviction. The NRA didn't re-enter the home after being evicted. The NRA didn't call animal contral to have a pet taken out of the home and than ambush the officer. The NRA didn't blast an innocent man through the front door. Joseph Corey did all of the above. You can't blame an organization and a shotgun for the actions of an evil man.
The human being who manipulated the trigger is the one at fault. Not the gun. I own several guns and I have no intention of ever firing one at any human being. Unless that human being is a clear danger to myself or a person whom I am honor-bound to protect. Police cannot physically defend you, or me, or any other person, it is impossible in most cases. If a person breaks into your home, that person is likely to see you as a threat - you can identify him/her/it/them. Your life is of no value to the criminal, but your death makes it less likely the criminal will be arrested at all, so what's a murder or two, or three, if that's the price to keep from being arrested? If the police respond to your 911 call immediately, it could still be quite some time before an officer is even able to reach your location...4-5 minutes in an urban setting would be considered a very rapid response - the "rapid" times only increase in more rural areas. In 4 *seconds* you're dead and the closest police officer hasn't even turned on the lights yet. Yes, police have saved people in hostage situations, since they have time to get to the location and organize, bring in specialists, etc. Few crimes last more than a minute, and the ones where hostages are taken are quite rare in the real world despite what movies show us. There are roughly 315-330 million people in the United States. Say one cretin goes off the deep end each month. 12 out of 315 million *hardly* presents a statistically-viable sample to say EVERY gun owner is a threat to innocents. Even if one pares it down to just gunowners, you're still talking a miniscule fraction of 1 percent.
History has shown that whenever something is banned, the criminal element steps in to provide it anyway, and they don't care if the buyer has prior convictions for domestic violence, or armed robbery, or a wide array of other violent crimes. Prohibition worked SO very well for us, didn't it? It only caused the criminals to band together and organize themselves. We then had whole gangs of criminals. The La Cosa Nostra arrived on US shores, and gave us the Mafia. But it did prevent the Town Otis from going to church drunk and causing a scene that might distress Aunt Bea. Organized crime and the Mafia may not make the news like they did a few decades ago, but they're still there.
The NRA does not condone and has never defended any criminal act. What they do oppose is the restriction of the rights of people based on actions that are ALREADY ILLEGAL, performed by .0000000381% of the population. Regardless of the NRA, murder is illegal already. If you're determined to kill someone, thus committing a crime, it won't be a great hurdle to commit another crime to acquire the weapon to do so. What will be harder or indeed impossible is for a regular citizen who does not have an ambition to be a criminal to have any avenue for protecting their own lives and that of their families against those who do have such aspirations.
26,250,000many of whom were already legally banned from owning firearms to begin with, and thus had ALREADY gotten them via illegal means.
Ignore the spurious 26,250,000 number - that's a relic from an attempt to input in Calculator while in the wrong window.
a "good honest" person does not shoot an innocent man, especially a man that was coming to help save an innocent pet.
Also, is it not true that the government has a current program to help those facing foreclosure keep their homes?
Maybe on paper - many borrowers who tried to get involved came to regret it. Bottom line - if you don't have income to make house payments, and the house is worth less than the outstanding loans and liens, you eventually get foreclosed. No assistance program can postpone it forever.
Too bad we don't have public hangings anymore.
Why was the bank guy with the animal control officer anyway?
It's possible the bank guy had a key to the house. The animal control officer probably assumed the animals had been abandoned inside the house. The bank guy was there to unlock the door.
I wonder if there really were any pets and if they were rescued.
As sad as this case is, in all probability, the person who called will get a lawyer who will claim that the man was despondent over the forecloser and mentally unstable.