A friend of the driver who faces possible criminal charges in connection with an intensive search by police, firefighters and the U.S. Coast Guard for a pickup truck that cracked through the ice and sank in a southern New Jersey river, killing a dog, says the man didn't mean to kill his pooch.
The dog, Rollo, was trapped in the truck as it sank through the ice on the frozen Toms River around 12:15 a.m. Sunday. Witnesses said the truck drove out onto the ice and the driver, identified by officials as 27-year-old driver Andrew Mayer, started doing donuts. The truck's headlights and brake lights could be seen from the shoreline at first; then they disappeared.
By the time responders found the submerged vehicle, 10 hours later and 100 feet from shore, the nearly 3-year-old boxer mix was dead. A friend of Mayer who asked that NBC 4 New York not use his name said Mayer tried to get the dog out of the backseat before the truck crashed through the ice, but the dog was terrified -- and the vehicle sank so quickly.
"He would do anything for that dog, anything," the friend said. "That was his baby."
Mayer, who rents the basement of a home with his friend Daniel Joly, declined to talk to NBC 4 New York. Police said Joly, who was a passenger in the truck at one point, told investigators he argued with Mayer about driving on the frozen river and got out of the vehicle.
Area police and firefighters searched for the truck and were joined by a helicopters dispatched by the Coast Guard and the New Jersey State Police. The multi-agency search cost "hundreds of thousands of dollars," a police source estimated.
Mayer's friend said he had seen a car go out on the ice earlier, and that his buddy hadn't done anything illegal.
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"There is no law saying you can't drive on the ice," the friend said. "I mean, it's a daredevil move."
Some local dog lovers, however, say the daredevil move went too far. The SPCA says it may investigate the dog's death.
Police have indicated charges are expected to be filed, though it's not clear what kind -- or when. The Ocean County Prosecutor's Office ultimately will decide whether to file charges in the case.
