Man faces charges of throwing woman’s cats into San Francisco Bay
Authorities have arrested a 33-year-old man accused of killing two cats by grabbing the carrier holding them away from their homeless owner and throwing it into San Francisco Bay, according to a news report.
Eric Leroy Patterson was taken into custody on Friday, hours after his photo was released to the public, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Authorities said they found Patterson as they were patrolling the Embarcadero area, near Sacramento and Drumm streets. It was the same part of the city where the Nov. 25 attack occurred.
Patterson led officers on a short foot chase before he was apprehended, animal control Capt. Vicky Guldbech told the newspaper. Patterson was taken to San Francisco General Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation.
If and when he is cleared, Patterson will be booked into county jail on suspicion of two felony counts of animal cruelty, Guldbech said.
San Francisco police referred all questions about the case to animal control officials. A spokesperson for the agency could not immediately be reached Monday.
Authorities said the November attack occurred along the Embarcadero at Pier 14 when a man approached a homeless woman and started throwing all of her belongings into the bay.
“She started screaming, people heard that, then he picked up the cat carrier with her two adult cats in it and hoisted that into the bay,” Guldbech told KTVU-TV.
The incident occurred on the same day that Laurice Barrett, 36, was arrested and booked into San Francisco County Jail on suspicion of robbery and animal cruelty.
Barrett was accused of robbing a woman and killing her dog on Dec. 28, 2012.
Authorities said the woman stopped on the side of the road on Leavenworth Street near Golden Gate Avenue to make a call when she was approached by a man.
Authorities alleged that Barrett robbed the woman, then grabbed her dog and threw it into the street, where it suffered fatal injuries.
Barrett was later charged and an arrest warrant was issued. He was a fugitive for almost a year until U.S. marshals tracked him to an apartment building in Vallejo, where he was arrested last month.
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