A man was arrested and charged after a Brooklyn community alleged he let his dogs attack a group of stray cats that had been in the neighborhood for years, killing some of the felines.
Fulton Gordon was charged with animal cruelty, NYPD Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison said in a tweet Monday. The 28-year-old was arrested just before 3:30 p.m. Monday on Stanley Avenue — the location of the alleged incident. Police said in their initial search for the suspects that there were two individuals who may be connected to the case, but just Gordon was in custody.
The arrest came after a woman who had been taking care of the cats for about a decade complained multiple times following the death of one her her favorite strays, Tuxedo.
That feline lived among a cat colony at the Breukelen Houses. Latonya Sassee said Tuxedo looked after other members of the group, saying if a new cat showed up, Tuxedo frequently "puts them under his wing."
But in January, she said her beloved Tuxedo was mauled — and Sassee said it was done deliberately. She told NBC New York that a man and a woman were out with their two dogs, and sicced the canines on the cat colony. A witness told her it got even worse than that, though.
"(Tuxedo) got away and they put a chair there and a stick and they banged him down the tree. They made him come down the tree so their pit bull could maul him to death," Sassee said. "Now what kind of insanity, what kind of evil, sadistic person would come and do that?"
Sassee said she made daily calls to police with information about the couple's whereabouts. She said the police never called her back early one, spurring others in the community to get involved.
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"This man weaponized a dog with all intent to kill an animal, which is a crime, and I don't know why nothing is being done about it," said neighbor Alexis Cagino. "Nobody like that should own a dog (or) should have the right to own an animal."
As the NYPD searches for the other possible suspect, Sassee said she'll keep trapping, neutering and releasing cats, but Tuxedo's death has changed her forever.
"I have not been the same. This has crushed me, this has killed me," she said. "My spirit is gone."
