SAN FRANCISCO –
A person suspected of happening a three-hour taking pictures rampage in Northern California and killing 81 animals, together with miniature horses, goats and chickens, pleaded not responsible to animal cruelty and different fees.
Vicente Arroyo, 39, made his first court docket look Thursday after Monterey County Sheriff deputies arrested him earlier within the week for allegedly utilizing a number of weapons to shoot the animals being housed in pens and cages on lots within the small group of Prunedale.
The animal homeowners don’t wish to be recognized or converse with the media, Monterey County Sheriff Commander Andres Rosas instructed The Related Press Friday.
“I went on the market, and it was a reasonably traumatic scene. These had been folks’s pets,” he mentioned.
One of many miniature horses belonged to the proprietor of the lot the place the animals had been housed, and the opposite 80 belonged to somebody who rented the land to accommodate their pets, Rosas mentioned.
In line with court docket information, Arroyo was charged with killing 14 goats, 9 chickens, seven geese, 5 rabbits, a guinea pig and 33 parakeets and cockatiels. Arroyo can also be charged with killing a pony named Fortunate and two miniature horses named Estrella and Princessa, KSBW-TV reported.
This photograph offered by the Monterey County Sheriff’s Workplace on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, exhibits among the weapons confiscated from the Prunedale, Calif., house of Vicente Arroyo, suspected killing dozens of animals. (Monterey County Sheriff’s Workplace through AP)
Some animals survived the taking pictures that lasted a number of hours however needed to be euthanized due to the severity of their accidents, Rosas mentioned.
Rosas mentioned Arroyo lived in a camper in a winery subsequent to the lot the place the animals had been stored and {that a} motive is just not but recognized.
His lawyer, William Pernik, mentioned that after speaking to Arroyo and his household he turned involved about his shopper’s psychological competency and requested the decide for a psychological well being analysis.
“We’re coping with a person who has very severe fees and who doesn’t look like in the proper way of thinking to know the proceedings in opposition to him,” Pernik mentioned.
Pernik mentioned that Arroyo’s household had reached out to varied nation companies to get assist for him however that “sadly, he didn’t obtain that psychological well being assist in time earlier than this tragic incident.”
The decide ordered Arroyo, who’s being held on a $1 million bail, to endure a psychological analysis.
The court docket will get an replace on Arroyo’s psychological standing in two weeks, Pernik mentioned.
Authorities acquired a number of 911 calls round 3:25 a.m. Tuesday reporting photographs being fired in Prunedale, an integrated group about 8 miles (13 kilometers) from town of Salinas, he mentioned.
Deputies who arrived on the scene might hear photographs being fired, and a shelter-in-place was ordered for a five-mile radius.
Monterey County S.W.A.T. members had been despatched in, and the sheriff’s workplace additionally requested drone help from the close by Seaside Hearth Division and Gonzales Police Division, Rosas mentioned.
Officers in an armored car arrested Arroyo with out incident, he mentioned.
Deputies discovered a crashed pickup truck and recovered eight firearms, together with lengthy rifles, shotguns and handguns, on the scene. After executing a search warrant on Arroyo’s camper, they discovered one other seven firearms, together with an unlawful AK-47 assault rifle, two ghost weapons, and about 2,000 rounds of assorted calibers of ammunition, Rosas mentioned.
Prosecutors charged Arroyo with dozens of fees involving animal cruelty, willful discharge of a firearm with gross negligence, unlawful possession of an assault weapon, vandalism, drug possession and making felony threats and terrorizing whereas being in possession of a firearm as a felon.
“That is clearly probably the most horrific animal cruelty case we’ve ever seen on this county, I’m certain,” Chief Assistant District Legal professional Berkley Brannon instructed KSBW-TV after the Thursday listening to.
