HUNTSVILLE (April 8, 2009)--A Navy SEAL from Texas who won the Navy Cross for heroism after a firefight in Afghanistan that left the other members of his team dead chased three men through three counties after finding his yellow Lab shot outside his home.

A Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman says Marcus Luttrell was involved in the high- speed chase in the early morning hours of April 1 after he found his yellow Labrador shot outside his home in Huntsville.

The Onalaska Police Department finally stopped the three men.

The Walker County Sheriff's Department investigated the death of Luttrell's dog Dasy.

Animal cruelty charges were filed against Michael John Edmonds II, 21, and Alfonzo Hernandez, 24.

A third man who was driving the vehicle in which the other two were riding was cited for not having a license.

Luttrell was awarded the Navy Cross for combat heroism in 2006.

He and three other SEALS were sent to find and kill a Taliban leader in June 2005.

As they scoured the area, they encountered some civilians who evidently later alerted Taliban fighters to the presence of the four Americans because about an hour after the encounter, 80 to 100 insurgents attacked.

Luttrell’s three teammates died in the attack, in which an estimated 35 Taliban were also killed.

Luttrell, though badly wounded, was able to crawl away and down the side of a cliff to escape the carnage.

“Dehydrated, with a bullet wound to one leg, shrapnel embedded in both legs, three vertebrae cracked; the situation for Luttrell was grim,” a Department of Defense account says.

He was too weak to make contact with rescue helicopters sent to search for the team, and ended up traveling seven miles on foot to reach a village where the residents fed him and cleaned his wounds.

One of the villagers went to a Marine outpost with a note Luttrell had written and a massive rescue operation was launched.