SAN FRANCISCO — A man accused of carrying out a three-hour shooting rampage in Northern California and killing 81 animals, including miniature horses, goats and chickens, has pleaded not guilty to animal cruelty and other charges.
Vicente Arroyo, 39, made his first court appearance Thursday after Monterey County sheriff’s deputies arrested him earlier this week for allegedly using multiple weapons to shoot animals kept in pens and cages on a property in the small community of Prunedale.
The animals’ owners did not want to be named or speak to the media, Monterey County Sheriff’s Capt. Andres Rosas told The Associated Press on Friday.
“I went there and it was quite a traumatic scene. These were people’s pets,” he said.
One of the miniature horses belonged to the owner of the property where the animals were housed, and the other 80 belonged to someone who rented the land to house their pets, Rosas said.
According to court records, Arroyo was accused of killing 14 goats, nine chickens, seven ducks, five rabbits, a guinea pig and 33 parakeets and cockatiels. Arroyo is also accused of killing a pony named Lucky and two miniature horses named Estrella and Princessa, KSBW-TV reported.
Some of the animals survived the shooting, which lasted several hours, but had to be euthanized due to the severity of their injuries, Rosas said.
Rosas said Arroyo was living in a camper in a vineyard next to the property where the animals were kept and that the motive is not yet known.
His attorney, William Pernik, said that after speaking with Arroyo and his family, he became concerned about his client’s mental health and asked the judge for a mental health evaluation.
“We are dealing with an individual against whom very serious charges have been brought and who does not appear to be in the right state of mind to understand the proceedings against him,” Pernik said.
Pernik said Arroyo’s family had contacted several agencies around the country to get help for him, but “unfortunately he did not receive mental health care in time before this tragic incident.”
The judge has ordered that Arroyo, who is being held on $1 million bail, undergo a psychiatric evaluation.
The court will receive an update on Arroyo’s mental state in two weeks, Pernik said.
Authorities received multiple 911 calls about shots fired around 3:25 a.m. Tuesday in Prunedale, a community about eight miles (13 kilometers) from the city of Salinas, he said.
Officers arriving on the scene heard gunshots and a shelter-in-place order was issued within a five-mile radius.
Monterey County SWAT members were deployed and the sheriff’s office also requested drone assistance from the nearby Seaside Fire Department and the Gonzales Police Department, Rosas said.
According to him, Arroyo was arrested without incident by officers in an armored vehicle.
Officers found a crashed pickup truck and eight firearms, including long guns, shotguns and handguns, at the scene. After executing a search warrant on Arroyo’s RV, they found seven more firearms, including an illegal AK-47 assault rifle, two ghost guns and about 2,000 rounds of various calibers of ammunition, Rosas said.
Prosecutors have charged Arroyo with dozens of charges, including animal cruelty, willful discharge of a firearm with gross negligence, illegal possession of an assault weapon, vandalism, drug possession and making criminal threats and terrorizing while in possession of a firearm as a felon.
“This is clearly the most horrific animal cruelty case we’ve ever seen in this county, I’m sure,” Chief Deputy District Attorney Berkley Brannon told KSBW-TV after Thursday’s hearing.