LOS ANGELES — The ongoing military presence in downtown Los Angeles has claimed its first casualty. Gambit, a Marine Corps working dog, was shot and killed during a visit by Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, who allegedly feared for her safety.

Witnesses say the 55-pound Belgian Malinois was leashed and fully compliant when Noem drew her personal Sig Sauer 9mm — hot pink, of course — and fired three rounds into the dog’s back.

Noem, who famously admitted in her 2024 memoir to executing her 14-month-old puppy Cricket for being “untrainable,” defended the act as a matter of self-defense.

“I feared for my life,” Noem said while readjusting clip-in extensions and reapplying bronzer. “And frankly, that animal was wild and probably would not have been a very good hunting dog, anyway.”