Dog Strangled in Fight Over Late-Night Basketball

A disagreement over a late-night basketball game in Skokie Sunday night ended with a 67-year-old woman knocked to the ground and one of her dogs strangled.

The woman and another man, both Skokie residents, were walking three dogs in or near the playground of Bessie Rhodes Magnet School at about 11:30 p.m. Sunday when they heard noises from three men playing basketball.

The after-hours basketball playing prompted the woman to confront the men before a fight escalated, said Deputy Chief Tony Scarpelli.

During an ensuing scuffle, the woman fell to the ground and let go of her dog's leash.  One of the basketball players snatched her dog,  a small Cairn terrier, and held the dog in the air, “essentially suffocating it to death," Scarpelli said.

The woman, scraped and bruised, took the dog to a veterinarian, where it was pronounced dead on arrival.

Maxwell A. Fratolli, 17, of the 2800 block of West Lunt Avenue in Chicago, and Max S. Gassman, 20, of the 8850 block of Ewing Avenue in Skokie, have each been charged with aggravated battery to a senior citizen and aggravated cruelty.  Fratolli was charged as an adult, police said.

A third man who was with the two suspects at the time of the incident was released by police without charges.