This afternoon, the same female who was filmed yesterday punching, choking and strangling a small dog in Santa Ana tried to pummel the dog again. But, alerted by the OC Weekly blog post, the building's residents came to the dog's rescue.
“I heard that same little dog crying,” one of them just told me. “I ran to the window, looked down and saw that person from the video hitting the dog again in the face and head. Right then, another neighbor who was closer ran up to her and told her to stop. I can't believe she was going to beat that dog again.”
Santa Ana police officers–who'd expressed shock after seeing the video this morning–quickly arrived and took the 15-year-old suspect, who is in the 10th grade of high school, into custody.
“Our main concern was for the welfare of the dog, and I'm happy to report that it's now safe,” said Corporal Jose Gonzalez. “The girl apparently has a diminished mental capacity.”
After questioning, the girl was released to the custody of her mother, who voluntarily surrendered the pet to an animal control officer. The dog will be transported this afternoon to a county shelter and made available for adoption.
Santa Ana police say they will submit a report plus the Weekly's video footage to the Orange County District Attorney's office for prosecution consideration.
— R. Scott Moxley / OC Weekly
CNN-featured investigative reporter R. Scott Moxley has won Journalist of the Year honors at the Los Angeles Press Club; been named Distinguished Journalist of the Year by the LA Society of Professional Journalists; obtained one of the last exclusive prison interviews with Charles Manson disciple Susan Atkins; won inclusion in Jeffrey Toobin’s The Best American Crime Reporting for his coverage of a white supremacist’s senseless murder of a beloved Vietnamese refugee; launched multi-year probes that resulted in the FBI arrests and convictions of the top three ranking members of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department; and gained praise from New York Times Magazine writers for his “herculean job” exposing entrenched Southern California law enforcement corruption.