A man arrested on suspicion of luring and killing an unknown number of cats in Southern California has been released on bail, police confirmed Thursday.
Alejandro Acosta Oliveros, 45, from Santa Ana, was arrested after police served a search warrant at his home on Wednesday.
Oliveros was described as a “serial cat killer” on a video posted to the Santa Ana Police Department’s Instagram page following his arrest.
Police told KTLA that Oliveros confessed and that they were still trying to figure out just how many cats had been killed, but said they believe it was “a lot.”
Santa Ana residents have been reaching out on social media sites such as Nextdoor for weeks to alert neighbors and police about neighborhood cats being taken and even killed.
“We saw our cameras, and this guy just grabbed a neighborhood cat, seemed like he tied his legs up and took him around 5 p.m.,” read one of the Nextdoor posts. “He went walking on Shelton Street towards McFadden. The cat is black with light brown spots.”
A person in another post said the man injected a cat that later died. “Hello! I’m near El Salvador park, and my neighbor’s cat was killed by a man who injected it with some sort of substance.”
Police said following Oliveros’ arrest that they expected charges to be filed, but further details were not immediately provided upon his release.
