Brno Man Pepper-Sprays Dogs, Then Stabs Two Pursuers After a Chase

An unexplained hatred of dogs

In Brno, a man named Igor Džama, who twice pepper-sprayed other people's dogs in the summer of 2022, stabbed two people who tried to detain him. On Thursday the Brno Regional Court heard his appeal against the verdict and upheld a ten-month suspended prison sentence with a two-year probation period.

Džama, an engineer by training, apparently harbors a dislike of dogs, though the nature of that dislike remains a mystery. The court ordered a psychiatric examination, but the man refused to cooperate with the specialists. As a result he was forcibly placed under inpatient observation in a psychiatric hospital, where he likewise refused to engage, so the expert could not reach any conclusion about his mental state. That is why the case, which began back in 2022, dragged on for years.

Pepper spray and a knife against dogs and their owners

In the summer of 2022, on a dirt track behind houses on the outskirts of Brno, Džama pepper-sprayed a small-breed puppy being walked by a woman and her friend — according to the owner, he was shouting insults as he did so. A few days later, almost in the same spot, he attacked another dog tied to a tree while its owner was picking fruit. Hearing the animal whimper, the man ran after Džama and demanded an explanation. Džama took off running but kept hold of the pepper spray and a knife.

The chase ended in stabbings

Since many people, including children, were nearby, the dog's owner called his friends for help; they arrived quickly and gave chase. After a pursuit of several hundred meters, they caught up with the fugitive by car and by kick-scooter, but he had no intention of giving up without a fight. Džama jumped onto the hood of his pursuers' car, stabbed the windshield with his knife, and as the men tried to pull him off the hood, swung the blade so wildly that he inflicted a stab wound near one man's shoulder and a 12-centimeter wound on another man's head.

Court rejects the self-defense claim

The Brno Municipal Court classified the incident as bodily harm, disorderly conduct and damage to property, and sentenced Džama to ten months in prison, suspended, with a two-year probation period. The man disagreed with the verdict and appealed, claiming he was himself the victim of an attack — by both the dogs and his pursuers — and had only been defending himself. "We don't deny the incident, but the court failed to address the question of self-defense. Things happened differently — my client was being run at by a car," said his lawyer, Pavel Vaněrek, adding that the court had not considered any alternative version of events and that his client should be acquitted.

The judges reviewed video footage recorded by police upon arriving at the scene, by which point the dog owner's friends had already immobilized the attacker. In the recording, the man complained to paramedics: "I ran as hard as I could, they caught me, beat me — I might even have a gunshot wound from a gas pistol." Later, in court, he added: "The police manipulated the investigation, the officers lied and insulted me."

However, the appellate panel, chaired by judge Markéta Jirsová, rejected the appeal, noting that the sentence handed down was, if anything, lenient. "The dog owner called for help, saying there was a man with a knife nearby and that he himself needed to tend to his pet. The defendant was fleeing for no reason; the people who came to help chased him and wanted to disarm him — he was behaving erratically. Instead of dropping the weapon, he jumped onto the hood, stabbed the windshield and the victim. That is certainly not self-defense," said Judge Jirsová, adding that there was no gas pistol at the scene and that no violations were found in the conduct of the police.

The man still has the option of filing a cassation appeal with the Supreme Court, and according to his lawyer, he intends to use it.

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Source: novinky.cz