Broken Arrow, Okla. police are investigating the apparent torture and killing of a family cat as a possible hate crime due to the owner being in a relationship with a police officer, authorities said.
On Saturday morning police say Josie Saltarelli discovered her cat, Capone, in the yard cut in two with its organs taken out. Saltarelli said she and her pet have been targeted because her boyfriend, who also lives at the residence, works as a police officer with the Tulsa Police Department.
“We loved him dearly, I loved him dearly, and it’s really awful that the last image in my mind is what we found,” Saltarelli said to local station News4.
The gruesome scene was discovered by a family friend, Sadie McPherson, in the front part of the house in a grassy area. Local news refused to air photos of the dismembered and gutted feline due to the graphic nature of the scene.
“They came out and saw, and that’s when we started speculating this was not done by accident,” McPherson told News4.
News4 confirmed that “the Broken Arrow police Department says their investigation confirms someone, not thing, had to have killed the cat and left his body in front of the house.”
“With the vilification of police officers right now, it’s awful and we’ve been scared for him to go to work for months, and now we feel that way at our home,” Saltarelli told News4.
Broken Arrow Police Officer Mike Peale told reporters it’s plausible the mutilation of the animal was a hate crime.
“As in everything we investigate, we want to find justice for the victims,” Peale said. “We love our pets in Broken Arrow, so we take all crimes seriously, but certainly something of this magnitude kind of gets a little extra attention.”
“I still don’t know what to think, really,” Saltarelli added.
If evidence the kitty’s unspeakable demise is connected to members of Black Lives Matter or the domestic terror group Antifa, it may follow a pattern of innocent animals being harmed during recent left-wing demonstrations.
According to Cassandra Fairbanks from the Gateway Pundit, last week Black Lives Matter advocates ran over a raccoon twice before beating it with a baseball bat in New York City while a cheering crowd looked on. The alleged niece of one of the thugs posted online that “only white people worry” about animals.
VIEWER DISCRETION: The shocking video, posted on Twitter and shared below, may not be suitable for all readers.
NYC ????
We can’t save the raccoon, but we can identify everyone involved. @NYPDnews @HumaneSocietyNY @aspca @fox5ny #newyork #NYC #nypd #newyorkpolice #COVID19 #AllLivesMatter #Chicago #animalcruelty #raccoon #abuse #animallivesmatter #saveourchildren pic.twitter.com/9898Rri0HQ
— Lite Pimp (@litepimp) August 18, 2020
The person who first uploaded the raccoon slaughter goes by the name “James Blue” and rationalized the barbaric action by claiming “Black Lives Matter” and other people should “worry about the police killing Black people” and “treating us like animals.” Blue’s Facebook and Instagram accounts have since been disabled.
In June, BLM rioters in Memphis were accused of abusing a puppy live on television. Rumors on social media claimed the dog was stolen from a local pet rescue shelter and over 100,000 people signed a change.org petition requesting the “maximum sentence for man who tortured [a] dog on live news in Memphis, TN.”
As of now police have no suspects in Capone the cat’s case in Oklahoma, but Saltarelli has offered a reward for any information about who may have snuffed out her beloved companion.
With only memories and pictures left of Capone, the grieving cat mom added a message to the perpetrator: “I hope you are found and caught and prosecuted to the fullest extent.”
The Oklahoma Alliance for Animals also has put up a $1,000 reward for any information that leads to an arrest.