Calls hit the Monterey County Sheriff’s Office early Tuesday morning.
Residents of the unincorporated area of Prunedale, about 10 miles northwest of Salinas, reported numerous shots fired in the dark around 3:25 a.m. near a local vineyard.
The Sheriff’s Office ordered residents in a five-mile radius to shelter in place via robocalls while its SWAT team responded. The department also requested drone assistance from the nearby Seaside Fire Department and Gonzales Police Department.
Authorities weren’t sure what to expect.
What they found was an animal massacre. In all, 81 creatures — miniature horses, goats, rabbits, guinea pigs, chickens, ducks and other birds — were killed.
A suspect, 39-year-old Vicente Joseph Arroyo, was arrested without incident, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Authorities estimate he killed the animals over the course of three hours.
Arroyo lived on the property where the animals resided, according to Cmdr. Andres Rosas, Monterey County sheriff’s spokesperson. The animals were kept in a variety of cages and enclosures.
The suspect was not employed at the site, officials said, but no other details were provided.
Arroyo was booked on suspicion of six felonies including willful discharge of a firearm with gross negligence, cruelty to animals, illegal possession of an assault weapon, vandalism totaling $400 or more, making criminal threats and terrorizing, all while being in possession of firearm as a felon.
A representative for Arroyo was not immediately available.
There was no court date set for Arroyo as of Wednesday afternoon.
His bail was initially set at $50,000, but department investigators successfully petitioned a county judge to raise the limit to $1 million, according to Rosas.
“I’ve been in law enforcement for 24 years and I’ve never seen anything like this,” Rosas said in a phone interview. “Being an animal lover, they become part of your family, and for them to be taken in this manner is horrible.”
The Sheriff’s Office said it executed a search warrant on the property and found seven firearms, including long rifles, shotguns and handguns, as well as an illegal assault weapon and two ghost guns. Rosas estimated about 2,000 rounds of various calibers of ammunition were recovered.
When deputies arrived on the scene of the darkened rural area among a vineyard, a nursery and a farm, they said they could hear various calibers of weapons being fired.
The vegetation and darkness of the surrounding area concerned deputies, who called for SWAT assistance and drone backup.
“The place we ultimately set up our command center was 50 feet away from horses that deputies didn’t notice until daylight,” Rosas said. “That’s how dark it was.”
A drone found what the Sheriff’s Office said was a crashed vehicle in the vineyard. Law enforcement responded with an armored unit that eventually reached Arroyo; he was ordered to surrender.
The SPCA Monterey County Humane Investigations team assisted the Sheriff’s Office at the scene — which was described as “horrific and heartbreaking” by Beth Brookhouser, an SPCA Monterey County spokesperson.
“All the animals involved were sadly found deceased except for five severely injured parakeets who needed to be humanely euthanized to end their suffering,” Brookhouser said.
“It was a tough, sad day,” she said, “but we’re hoping our work collecting evidence will help the sheriff’s department with this case and prevent this from happening again.”