Dad shot to death responding to ad to buy puppy for kids

A man in Florida was shot dead in front of his kids last week after he got into an argument with a man he met through a Facebook ad regarding a puppy, according to relatives.

Christopher “Scott” Bowman of Jacksonville, Fla., contacted a man on Facebook who said he wanted to sell his dog, Fox 30 reported. The two men agreed on the deal, and the seller reportedly insisted on delivering the dog to Bowman’s home.

Bowman invited the man, whom the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office did not immediately identify, inside his home for the exchange.

“The dude takes his shoes off, and he stays,” Chelsea Bowman, Scott’s wife, told Fox 30. “And he doesn’t leave. And it’s making everybody uncomfortable.”

Chelsea said the man became drunk and refused to leave after the couple asked him to go.

“He gets very, very volatile, very, very drunk,” Chelsea Bowman said. “My husband (Scott) goes to use the bathroom, and he waits for him. He comes out, and he grabs him and he starts beating him.

Bowman’s daughter said she saw the man put a gun to her father’s head, but Bowman wrestled the gun away and turned it on the man. Scott shot the suspect in the arm and ran but the man returned fire and shot Bowman in the chest, killing him, according to the report.

“[Daughter] Kinley was going ‘You shot my dad! You shot my dad!’” Chelsea Bowman said. “I said ‘Run! Go get help.’ I said ‘Baby, baby, please,’ trying to wake him up.”

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office detained the suspect and said the investigation was ongoing. There has been no immediate word if any charges have been filed.

“I miss him. I just want him back,” Bowman said. “I keep thinking it’s a horrible dream.”