By Connor Adams Sheets
When police officers arrived the morning of May 3 at a sixth-floor apartment at 140-18 Ash Ave. in Flushing, they found two bloody bodies.
One was the corpse of 33-year-old Thomas Shanis and the other was his 8-year-old dog Sampson, which was struggling to breathe after suffering a deep wound to his neck.
The two victims were stabbed at about 11:30 a.m. that day by two men who broke into the home, tied up Shanis, stabbed him in the back, stabbed the dog, then fled the scene on foot, according to Ira Ace, a witness at the scene.
Shanis’ elderly mother Zelda, who was in the apartment when her son was murdered, was left with nothing but memories of the man, who Ace said acted as a caretaker for her.
But she still gets to see Sampson, Shanis’ beloved companion, once every week or two, thanks to the quick, compassionate work of the 109th Precinct.
When Officer Amanda Graney got to the scene that morning, she saw that the German shepherd/Labrador retriever mix was in pain and badly hurt, but that he was still alive, so she loaded him into her police car and headed for a nearby veterinary clinic.
“We realized he needed medical attention and we had a few different options. But we wanted to get him the fastest veterinary care we could get him because we knew he had a bad wound, so we took him straight to the Whitestone Animal Hospital,” she said. “We were lucky enough to have the kindness of Dr. [David] Merker and Dr. Oswaldo Rojas, and without hesitation his entire staff was absolutely wonderful. They brought him in and immediately started taking care of his wound, which was more serious than we had initially seen at the crime.”
Merker, an experienced veterinarian and owner of the animal hospital, at 149-38 14th Ave., was not on duty when the punctured pooch arrived, but he knows the story well as relayed to him by Rojas. This was the first time the clinic had seen a dog removed from a crime scene with a stab wound.
He said Sampson was lucky to have escaped with his life since the knife wound came within a half-inch of hitting both his jugular vein and carotid artery. Had either been sliced, the canine probably would have died at the crime scene.
“We dropped everything else when we got the call. The doctor came in and made an immediate assessment, put the dog on an IV and basically stabilized the patient,” he said. “[Rojas], through exploratory surgery, surveyed to make sure there was no further damage. There was no sign of internal bleeding, so he sutured up the wound and placed a drain.”
The veterinary bill was high, but the 109th Precinct’s officers and members of its community council took a collection to foot the costs.
“The Police Department showed a lot of passion and concern, they went above and beyond and they came in to visit the dog as if it was a member of the family,” Merker said.
Five days of intravenous fluids, antibiotics and wound treatment later, the dog was released to one of Zelda’s neighbors, whose name neither Graney or Merker was able to provide.
That neighbor — who for years occasionally took Sampson on walks when Thomas Shanis was away or occupied — has taken the dog into her home, and she periodically brings him by Zelda’s apartment to help keep her spirits up and her son’s memory alive.
Reach reporter Connor Adams Sheets by e-mail at csheets@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
