A St. Paul woman who left her apartment after arguing with a man about their relationship returned to a ghastly scene: her bloodied dead dog hanging by its neck in her closet.

St. Paul police responded to a domestic call at her West Side apartment in the 100 block of Plato Boulevard around 11:45 p.m. Jan. 10.

Emmanuel Joe Ware Jr. (Courtesy of the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office)

She told officers she left the day before to stay with her sister after arguing with Emmanuel Joe Ware Jr., 25. When she got back about 11 p.m., Ware was gone and her dog — a white Pomeranian named “Bug” — was hanging in the closet and dead, a criminal complaint filed against the Minneapolis man says.

Officers saw a shattered mirror, blood “all over” the walls and the dog hanging. He had a deep cut to his eye.

A knife block in the kitchen was missing two knives.

A necropsy later revealed Bug had suffered broken bones and stab wounds to his head.

He said he ‘loves Bug’

The woman told police Ware sent her a series of threatening text messages after she went to her sister’s place. She said she is pregnant with Ware’s child and fearful of him because he was assaultive with her in the past, the complaint says.

Investigators spoke with Ware four days later at the Hennepin County Jail, where he was booked Jan. 12 on unrelated charges. He said he didn’t know anything about a dead dog, and that he had not seen the woman nor been to her apartment in over two weeks.

Ware said he “loves Bug” and would never hurt him, and that he was with his girlfriend, “Fantasia,” in Minneapolis on the day in question, the complaint says.

Investigators pulled video surveillance footage from the apartment building, which showed Ware in the first-floor elevator lobby around 5 p.m. Jan. 9, and in the fourth-floor lobby around 7:45 p.m.

Investigators, with apartment surveillance photos in hand, returned to the jail on Jan. 27 to interview Ware again. He said that he had lied to them before and was at the apartment on Jan. 9, but reiterated he did not kill the dog.

Toward the end of the interview, the complaint says, Ware told them, “Do you all just want me to lie and put this on someone else?”

Investigators obtained a search warrant for Ware’s phone and GPS data showed he was in the area of the apartment the day the dog was killed. They also found photos and a video of Bug running around the apartment, and photos of damaged items in the apartment.

Ramsey County prosecutors charged Ware by warrant Friday with felony mistreating or torturing an animal. He remains at the Hennepin County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail on charges of threats of violence and possession of a firearm and ammunition by a person who is not eligible due to a conviction of a crime of violence.

Ware was also charged Friday in Ramsey County District Court with felony mail theft after police say video surveillance at the woman’s St. Paul apartment building shows him stealing a package of Christmas gifts from the mail room on Dec. 4.

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Ware was released from prison on May 28 and placed on intensive supervised release after serving three years and three months for abetting and abetting first-degree robbery out of Hennepin County.

He has been convicted in Hennepin County of two other felonies: first-degree robbery in 2017 and fourth-degree possession of a controlled substance in 2019.

He has a misdemeanor domestic assault charge pending in Ramsey County stemming from a Dec. 11 incident involving the St. Paul woman.

Court documents in that case say Ware and the woman went to the HealthPartners Clinic on Wabasha Street in St. Paul for an OB/GYN appointment and argued over her pregnancy. While they were alone in an exam room, Ware allegedly picked her up and slammed her into a wall. When medical staff went into the room, Ware ran from the clinic.