ALAMOSA — Alamosa County Sheriff Robert Jackson said Monday that it did take his officers about an hour to respond to a call about shots fired near Estrella last week, but it was due to the fact that they were tied up with transporting an arrested suspect.

After reviewing records from the dispatch center, Jackson said the “shooting” call was essentially a “non-emergent, cold report”, and officers were tied up at the time.

Glen Sykes was issued a citation for reckless endangerment following the incident that was first reported in a letter to the editor published in Thursday’s Valley Courier. Sykes told officers that dogs belonging to neighbors of his parents were harassing chickens and goats and he fired a weapon twice in an attempt to scare the dogs away and never tried to actually shoot the animals.

Sykes reported that he first shot into a hay bale near the dogs and later into the bank of a ditch. Jackson said he was cited with reckless endangerment, a Class 3 misdemeanor, following the Sept. 10 incident at 14301 Estrella Road south of town.

The sheriff said shots were never fired near children in the area at the time as was stated in the letter to the editor. Sykes told officers that the dogs were an ongoing problem for his parents and had killed chickens and harassed goats, cattle and horses in the past.