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DELTONA, Fla. (WSVN) — Witnesses at a Central Florida gas station sprang into action and confronted a man after they saw him strike a dog multiple times.

Cellphone video recorded by witnesses appeared to show the suspect pick something up from the ground and swing it at the animal.

“Get that dog away from him!” yelled one witness.

Raymon Prush watched it all go down at a gas station in Deltona after a man was seen attacking his own dog, Thursday afternoon.

“He’s beating the hell out of it for no reason. Poor dog.” said a 911 caller.

One of many bystanders who was recording the chaos yelled, “You’re recorded!”

“I see this guy walking a dog and it’s a dog. It’s beautiful dog, beautiful color,” recounted Prush, “And he yanked it because it tried to smell tire and hit in the face of the chain. I don’t understand why somebody could do that. It’s just it’s heartbreaking.”

He decided to step in and stop the man from hurting the dog any further. You can see Prush on cellphone video in a dark shirt approaching the suspect.

“He starts wailing the dog, wailing the dog, wailing the dog. The chain breaks, the dog breaks free, gets behind me,” said Prush.

That’s when Prush says other bystanders tried to shield the dog from its owner. The arrest report states multiple witnesses also saw the suspect, identified as 31-year-old Jose Rivera, punch the dog.

“It’s getting very ugly. There’s a whole bunch of guys getting ready to fight. Guy’s got a pit bull, and he’s being very abusive.” said the 911 caller.

Several people were seen stepping in to help the dog as the mayhem continued.

One of them grabbed the dog and put it in their car as they waited for deputies.

That action immediately sparked a fight between Rivera and a few people.

“I wasn’t going to let anybody get hurt, so I put myself in between,” recalled Prush. “He hit me in the face on this side, I guess, to try knock me down. That’s when I yoked him up, to get him to stop being violent and kind of pinned him against the pole in the gas tank over here.”

A few minutes went by before deputies showed up to calm the situation down.

“Can I stand up? I don’t want to sit down right now.” said Rivera.

“You have to sit down.” said deputy, “Put your hands behind your back.”

Rivera was arrested on the scene and later charged with animal cruelty and several counts of battery for the fight.

Deputies say a total of nine bystanders tried to get Rivera under control before they arrived. At least four of them, including Prush, would end up hurt.

A judge has set Rivera’s bond at $51,000.

Court records show Rivera has a history of violence, including several convictions for battery and domestic violence. Prush is still trying to wrap his head around how someone could hurt their own pet.

“We treat them as children. They live with us. They eat with us, they sleep with us,” said Prush. “They’re amazing things. And nobody deserves nor any animal deserves to get hit like that in the face. Especially with a metal chain. I just don’t understand how somebody could do that to something that’s so special.”

The dog is OK but it was found with cuts and open wounds; it was first turned over to animal control, but is now in the care of someone who does not live with Rivera.

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A Florida city has just adopted a new set of rules for – and it includes a slew of stricter mandates when it comes to animal cruelty and keeping pets healthy and safe.

On Tuesday, the City of Deltona Commission approved amendments to Chapter 14 of its ordinances, which pertains to animals, to include "more comprehensive regulations concerning animal cruelty."

Among these changes is a new requirement that requires dog owners to give their pets daily exercise.

"Animals must be given appropriate daily exercise. Subjective varies dog to dog dependent on age, health and breed," the ordinance read. The document did not go into detail about what qualifies as daily exercise, but according to the , that varies depending on dog size and age. Some opportunities for dog exercise are: walking, hiking, swimming, running up and down the stairs and playing fetch or tug, to name a few.

Deltona also adopted several other changes to Chapter 14, including guidelines on animal enclosures, weather protection and car safety.

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For example, shelter for dogs must provide adequate protection from cold and heat. Specifically, when temps fall below 40 degrees, dogs must be moved indoors and when highs top 90, they must be provided a fan to maintain the temperature in their shelter at or below 90 degrees. This was upped from the previous 85 degrees.

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There are also new rules for animal enclosures. They should be 25 square feet of open space, plus an additional 25 square feet for each additional animal kept in the same enclosed area, according to the ordinance. This was upped from the previous 20 square feet.

Dogs, cats and other animals should also always be "provided clean water, dry ground, shade for protection from the sun, thunderstorms, lightning, hail, hurricanes, tornados, tropical storms, flood waters, winds in excess of 20 miles per hour, and other natural manmade calamities," the ordinance continues.

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Furthermore, animals should not be confined in an unattended car without sufficient ventilation. The new ordinance also protects people who remove pets from cars and makes them immune from civil liability for damage to the car if there's no reasonable way for the pet to get out without help. There are exceptions to this law, which can be read .

Anyone who violates this ordinance is subject to civil infractions.

Burglary happened early Thursday morning along Sylvia Drive

DELTONA, Fla. – Detectives are investigating a series of burglaries in Deltona, and a video released on Friday shows one such burglary while a resident was at home, according to the Volusia Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies announced on social media that the burglary happened in the early hours of Thursday morning at a home along Sylvia Drive.

In a release, investigators said that it appeared as though the suspect entered through an unlocked door, and cash was stolen from the home.

REWARD AVAILABLE: Detectives are investigating a series of burglaries in @CityofDeltonaFL including a burglary of an occupied home while the resident was sleeping. pic.twitter.com/LP0WPjUDLm

— Volusia Sheriff (@VolusiaSheriff) January 26, 2024

“The victim was not aware of the burglary until she woke up in the morning and noticed several doors in her home were ajar,” the release reads.

Neighbor Victoria Sustar told News 6 that the incident scared her and left her “shaken.”

“These people were sleeping. Maybe that’s why he didn’t hurt them,” she said. “But if they would have come out, he might’ve hurt them.”

According to detectives, the same suspect is believed to be involved in vehicle burglaries and other attempted burglaries along Applegate Terrace and Armadillo Drive.

In those cases, stolen items included Apple AirPods and a handgun, the release shows.

Neighbor Kristine Hager told News 6 that one of the cars involved in the attempted burglaries belonged to her.

“He came up with a flashlight, looking to see if there’s maybe anything valuable,” she said. “Then, he of course pulled the thing to see if it was unlocked. He noticed it wasn’t, then he moved away.”

Anyone with information about the suspect is urged to contact detectives at (386) 860-7030 or JLRichardson@volusiasheriff.gov.

Deputies said that Sheriff Mike Chitwood is offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect involved in these burglaries.

“An occupied burglary in the middle of the night makes law enforcements’ hair on the back of their neck stand up,” Chitwood said. “If someone’s entering an occupied home at night, nothing good comes out of that.”

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DELTONA, Fla. — A local government official in Volusia County is proposing the elimination of the municipal/utility tax and franchise fee from residents’ electricity bills.

Deltona Mayor Santiago Avila Jr. announced on Facebook Monday morning that after receiving complaints from residents, he asked the interim city manager to add a discussion about removing the fees to the agenda for Monday's City Commission meeting.

During the meeting, the city manager asked for a consensus from the commission to hold a workshop to further discuss franchise fees in January or February. While they agreed, they did not set a date for that workshop yet.

What You Need To Know

Ahead of the meeting, Spectrum News asked Avila how much money the city would lose by removing the fees, what impact the loss of funds might have on the city budget and how the city might make up for the missing funds in other areas.

Avila said he did not determine the exact amounts involved before making his announcement on Facebook.

“That’s what we are going to talk about (at the City Commission meeting), right?" he said. "I want to know what that money is being used for. What's going to happen if it does get removed? If we can at least talk about getting it reduced.

Avila said he has heard concerns about additional charges on electricity bills from FPL and Duke Energy customers.

"The point is, is that I've had several residents approached me," he said. "There's a resident, I guess they have Duke Energy, they're paying just in those two fees over $70. That's unacceptable.”

Deltona resident Nick Lulli, who has lived in the city for more than two years says it's been a trying time, and the high fees have only added insult to injury for many people.

Lulli said that during the past couple of years, he has felt the impact of his increasing FPL electric bills.

“It's $265 for electrical service — the rest of that is taxes and fees,” he said, pointing to a franchise fee of $16.29, and local utility tax of $23.75 on his most recent bill.

“I’m like, 'Wow, $40 of this bill is literally tax money that goes to the city of Deltona,'" Lulli said. "So, it's not even really going for the electrical usage or anything like that. It literally is just a tax on top of the other taxes and fees that are already on it."

He is not the only city resident who has noticed how much local fees and taxes add to their electric bill.

“When you're already looking at a $400 bill and then they tack on taxes that can be anywhere around $50, $60, because it appears to me it's a sliding scale," said Duke Energy customer Dori Howington. "And I’m not sure how it works... But it just, it seems like a lot."

According to her Duke Energy bill, she paid more than $30 in municipal franchise fees and local utility tax combined.

A franchise fee is an amount paid to municipalities in exchange for the government not creating an electric utility of its own that would compete with an existing one. While a municipal utility tax is paid to a municipality based on a customer's electricity usage.

“When I saw the proposition this morning, I thought, 'Wow, OK, here is an opportunity for us to move that bill in a different direction,'” Lulli said.

Howington says any help in cutting local taxes on electric bills would make a big difference for hundreds of families.

“Electricity is a requirement of life — it's a necessity," she said. "We have to have it, and, so, anywhere we can reduce the strain on residents is a good thing, in my opinion.”

Lulli said he would save more than $400 a year if the local fees were eliminated.

“That would certainly make me feel a lot better going into 2024, knowing that I’d be a little bit more financially secure," he said.

For Howington, eliminating these local taxes on her bill would mean more would go toward other expenses like groceries.

“When you factor in our high summer bills, it comes out closer to about $600 a year," she said. "So, with that, I mean, that's almost one week of groceries or snacks for my kids."

DELTONA, Fla. — While dozens of Deltona residents are still recovering from the impacts of Hurricane Ian a year ago, heavy rains this past week brought flooding back to many of their properties.

What You Need To Know

Every time it rains, Mike Morris says he gets anxious thinking about his home flooding. After Hurricane Ian, water came in all the way to his backyard, and he says he’s not alone.

Walking into his backyard, he recounted what it was like when Hurricane Ian hit the area more than a year ago.

“What we’re worried about this year is that I had water to this point, with a trench going around completely up to our pool,” Morris said.

With the heavy rain over the last few days, he said he and his wife, Stephanie, are concerned about the water coming back to the property.

“I’ve been here 13 years now and the water’s just getting higher and higher,” Morris said.

He said the city created a flooding control structure to alleviate the Lake Theresa basin — which is supposed to drain the water — but so far it hasn't helped.

“We got three inches rainstorm one night, which brought this water," he said. "Actually, last weekend there was no water here. There was nothing. And then actually here we got what we call the cut that goes out. And now all that, you see how far it comes up, it goes up and wraps around the house again."

Morris’s next-door neighbor’s backyard was also flooded — something he attributes, at least in part, to development within the city.

“If everything’s full, then why you keep building if you know the basin can’t handle it?" Morris asked. "Why do you keep putting up and flowing more into this? It’s ridiculous."

Morris said a group of his neighbors are also in the same situation.

“Every single one of the neighbors that back this greenway are all concerned,” he said, referring to the greenway once known as Lake Clara that bordered Nadine Drive.

Morris showed Spectrum News the backyard of his neighbor on Nadine Drive, where the water has flooded in.

“All this was dry — I mean, you can see where the pines used to be out there," Morris said. "Pines don’t grow in wetland, and there’s probably another 15 to 20 houses with backyards like this."

Deltona City Commissioner for District 4 Dana McCool said she went out Sunday in the community alongside Volusia County commissioner David Santiago to assess flooding problems in different areas of the city.

Dozens of residents in the city of Deltona are raising concerns about flooding in their properties, especially with recent rain events. Tune in to @MyNews13 at 5 pm. pic.twitter.com/nJfLxisNoD

— Massiel Leyva (@LeyvaMassiel) October 2, 2023

“Our best course of action right now is to keep our residents informed of what we’re doing, to listen to what our residents are saying," McCool said. "I have my two pages of areas of concern, along with the pages from social media. Please know that I’m working on that and i intend to answer every single picture about what we’re doing in that area right now."

Last year, the city of Deltona allocated $6.5 million to stormwater projects, but this year residents voted down a proposal to increase the stormwater assessment fee.

“We already have a consultant engineering firm in here talking about this," McCool said. "We’ve been talking about it for a year now, and we’re capturing the funds, hopefully from the federal government, hopefully some state funds."

Morris said if the problem does not get fixed, he sees only one way out.

“Sell," he said. "Sell and hope — hopefully, someone buys the house. I mean, because right now, anything around here is in a flood zone."

McCool said she planned to meet with the city manager and the stormwater staff Monday to share residents’ concerns and look for solutions.