A 45-year-old man was arrested Wednesday morning, April 23, on suspicion of felony animal cruelty following weeks of reports from community members that he had been luring and harming cats in a Santa Ana neighborhood, authorities said.
The investigation of the suspect, Alejandro Oliveros Acosta, began after multiple reports over several weeks alleged that the man had been attracting neighborhood cats in the area of Sullivan Street and McFadden Avenue to his property, where he then injured or killed them, police said.
The exact number of cats harmed or killed was not immediately available, but Santa Ana Police Department spokeswoman Yessenia Aspeipia said over a dozen carcasses were found at his home. The suspect is believed to have manually harmed and killed the animals, Aspeipia said.
Investigators identified the suspect, who they say was captured on video shared by police on X and Facebook, appearing to lure and harm a cat behind a pickup truck. The footage helped corroborate the allegations, officials said.
There were over 200 comments left on the Facebook post, including many by Santa Ana residents, expressing their relief that the suspect was in custody and calling for a lengthy prison sentence.
”Finally!!! Happy to hear he was taken off the streets,” one commenter wrote. “Absolutely vile.”
“Lock him up and throw away the key!” another wrote.
“Not a good chance on rehabilitation of someone who tortured and kills animals,” wrote a third. “If anything, they tend to escalate to humans.”
Details regarding a potential motive were not immediately available.
The man is also suspected of abducting a Bengal Lynx cat named Clubber from its home in Westminster last month, Aspeipia said. The 10-month-old kitten was returned to its owner after she posted about the abduction on social media.
Detectives obtained a search warrant for Acosta’s residence on the 2300 block of West Wilshire Avenue and, with assistance from Westminster police and Santa Ana Animal Control, collected evidence and arrested him.
He was booked into the Santa Ana Jail.
The investigation is ongoing and anyone with information is urged to contact Police Investigative Specialist S. Guzman at 714-245-8416 or SGuzman@santa-ana.org
