3 people shot a kitten, then swept it into a Broward street to be run over, cops say

A Hollywood man shot an 8-month-old kitten with a rifle, then another man used a broom to sweep the barely mobile kitty into the street, apparently in hopes it would be run over, according to police account of surveillance video.

That didn’t happen, but the cat didn’t survive the June 19 trauma.

Last week, Lawrence Ivey, 38 and Jamarlin Huntley, 25, were arrested on aggravated animal cruelty charges. Huntley and his girlfriend, Walkenssia Joazile, 25, got hit with charges of tampering with evidence.

Ivey had been a Broward County Jail guest since a July 14 booking on two counts of selling cocaine within 1,000 feet of a school, childcare center or park. The new charges added another $15,000 to the $50,000 bond that he had yet to post. Huntley and Joazile were released after posting, respectively, a $3,500 bond and a $1,000 bond.

Broward school district was going to discuss masks — until anti-mask protesters showed up

Florida’s state of COVID, Artiles case snags GOP operative, unemployment site gets hacked, FPL draws new adversary

Shooting a cat in the back

On June 20, the maintenance worker who tends to the apartment building at 1950 Taft St., where Ivey and Joazile live, told the property manager that a kitten had been shot. The property manager told Hollywood police, who began investigating the next day. Meanwhile, city animal control officer Cindy Bates took the kitten to VCA Hollywood Animal Hospital.

Bates told Hollywood Det. Gina Graziani that when she got to the area, she saw “the kitten dragging her right leg and there appeared to be swelling visible in her lower body.”

VCA Hollywood Animal Hospital veterinarian Dr. Omar Khalaf told investigators that radiographs showed “numerous metallic fragments causing multiple spinal fractures.

“Due to the severe injuries, Dr., Khalaf deemed it necessary to humanely euthanize the victim.”

The maintenance man, who said he feeds a feral cat and her three kittens, said that Ivey told him the kitten had been attacked by a dog. But what happened to the cat, the maintenance man said, didn’t look dog-inflicted.

Graziani wrote in an arrest report that a 40-minute long surveillance video showed the threesome idling in front of Ivey’s apartment before heading over to the area where the kitten was.

At about 12:31 a.m., Graziani wrote, Ivey “walks over toward the kitten and aims a rifle with a scope and flashlight attached.”

After Ivey shot the kitten, Graziani wrote, all three ran back to Ivey’s apartment. They came back around 12:37 a.m. “looking in the area where the kitten was and, then, the kitten comes into view, dragging her back legs on the sidewalk.”

Joazile stood in front of the kitten until Huntley “walks up with a broom and begins to sweep the kitten toward the parking lot... Huntley continues to sweep the kitten through the parking lot and into the street.”

A car passed and Joazile “runs into the parking lot to see if the vehicle ran over the kitten. Huntley also walks into the street as the vehicle backs up and, it appears, two subjects get out of the vehicle to observe what was in the street.

“It appears that Huntley and Joazile purposely left the kitten in the middle of the street to be run over by a vehicle, but were unsuccessful.”