Virginia man charged after dog found stabbed 14 times on Middletown roadside
By Kayla Morton
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MIDDLETOWN, Md. (WBAL) — A man has been arrested for stabbing his dog 14 times after originally telling deputies he ran the animal over, the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office said on Thursday.
Erfan Behnam, a Reston, Virginia resident was found at his disabled car by another driver in the 7900 block of Hollow Road in Middletown. The road is a branch off of Interstate 70, runs along the Lavandaze Serenity Garden and is fairly rural.
The passerby told deputies the man they encountered “had stated he had run over his dog, killing it.”
After locating Behham, however, they discovered he was “visibly covered in blood and dog hair.”
Frederick County deputies recovered a knife in Behnam’s vehicle and matched it to the 14 stab wounds found on multiple areas of the dog’s body.
“During the investigation, Behnam provided inconsistent statements about how the dog was injured,” the sheriff’s office said.
Contradicting what he told the passerby, Behnam admitted to deputies “he believed he ‘needed to put the dog down’ and admitted to stabbing the dog.”
Animal Control responded to the scene and took custody of the dog’s remains.
Behnam is being held in the Frederick County Adult Detention Center on charges of felony aggravated cruelty to an animal.
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