Dog the Bounty Hunter’s grandson, 13, shot dead by own father in ‘tragic accident’
Dog the Bounty Hunter is grieving after an ‘incomprehensible’ family tragedy.
The 78-year-old reality star, whose real name is Duane Chapman, is mourning after his stepson Gregory Zecca, 38, allegedly shot and killed his 13-year-old son Anthony in what has been described as a ‘tragic accident’.
Dog is not directly related to Anthony or Gregory, who his wife Francie shares with her late husband.
In a statement to TMZ, a spokesperson for Dog and Francie said: ‘We are grieving as a family over this incomprehensible tragic accident and would ask for continued prayers as we grieve the loss of our beloved grandson, Anthony.’
Police confirmed to the outlet that they responded to a call at around 8pm local time.
The shooting has been described as an ‘isolated incident’ with no arrests made as of yet, while an investigation is ongoing.
Dog and Francie got married in 2021 after both losing their respective partners to cancer.
‘For a living, she’s a rancher and she recently lost her husband to cancer six months before I lost Beth Chapman,’ he told TMZ Live in 2020.
‘So we hopped on the phone, started talking to each other, crying and consoling each other and then one thing led to another and it’s just incredible that I’ve been able to meet someone like her.
‘With Francie, I’m allowed to speak about Beth, we speak about her husband. We cry. We hold each other.’
Dog, who has 13 children, revealed how Francie was helping him heal from the death of his wife Beth.
He said: ‘I am a fixer. I have to catch bad guys. I got to be at the top of my game. I can’t feel sorry for myself or guilty.
‘I got to go out there and make a difference. That’s what I do for a living so I’ve got to man up. She helps me do that.’
Dog the Bounty Hunter’s real life tragedies
The death of Dog the Bounty Hunter’s grandson comes six years after his wife Beth died after being diagnosed with cancer in 2017.
Her death and the latest heartbreaking incident is the latest in a string of family struggles over Duane Chapman’s life.
In 2017 memoir You Can Run But You Can’t Hide, he recalled receiving regular beatings from his father, which he believed was punishment for ‘being a terrible sinner’.
‘Until very recently, I never understood that none of his abuse was my fault. I just thought that was how all dads treated their sons,’ he wrote.
‘I was desperate for his affection, so I ignored the pain.’
Chapman was later convicted on a murder charged for a 1976 incident where his friend shot an alleged drug dealer while he waited in the car.
According to Texas law, anyone directly involved in a murder can be charged, and he served 18 months of a five-year sentence.
In the early 1990s, Dog discovered he had fathered a son with ex-girlfriend Debbie White, who kept her pregnancy from him while he served his sentence.
She took her own life in 1978 and the boy, Christopher, was adopted by Keith and Gloria Hetch, and he was jailed in 2021 on menacing charges.
‘I’ve helped Chris numerous times and will again when he is released from prison,’ the reality star told The Sun in 2021.
In 2009, there was heartbreak for the family when Dog’s 23-year-old daughter Barbara Katie Chapman – who he had with ex wife ‘Big’ Lyssa Brittain – died in a car accident on his and Beth’s wedding day.
Meanwhile, Barbara’s sister Lyssa once admitted to falsely accusing him of ‘raping [her] when [she] was 11’.
She previously said: ‘It was a horrible life that I never wanted to go back to, living with him and Beth and the fighting and the drugs.
‘When I got to my mother’s, although she drank, it was much more peaceful. I was willing to do anything to not go back.’
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