Police arrest 2 for cat shootings

Two men were arrested early Monday morning after allegedly shooting out a window of Troy’s animal shelter and killing four feral cats outside the building.

Troy Chief of Police Mitch Walters arrested Vincent Swimley, 20, and Trevor Brown, 21, after a witness first reported hearing gunshots coming from a pickup racing up and down Yaak Avenue at 4:15 a.m. in front of Kootenai Pets for Life shelter. 

Walters found two bulletholes through a KPFL window and four feral cats that appeared to have been shot to death based on a veterinarian’s x-rays. The shooter appeared to have attempted to kill a cat on a shelf inside the building, according to Walters, because the bulletholes in the glass were at shelf level.

“Fortunately, we did not have any volunteers in there,” KPFL director Judy Hyslop said. “The shelter is right across the street from a school. It was very reckless, and it’s cruelty.”

Brown was driving away in a pickup that matched the witness’s description and Swimley was getting into a different pickup when Walters found them at the Trojan Lanes parking lot at 4:35 a.m. He stopped and arrested Brown, and then arrested Swimley.

Walters seized two guns, a .30-06 rifle and a 22-caliber long rifle. The witness reported hearing gunshots with two different levels of intensity, according to Walters, leaving the possibility that the two recovered guns were used in the cats’ deaths.

KPFL traps, sterilizes and vaccinates feral cats and provides small shelters and food for them outside the building.

“For these cats, that is their protective home,” Hyslop said. “We already made arrangements to round them up, and they were going to have a home.”

Swimley and Brown are scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday or Wednesday. Each man is being held on charges of drunk driving, negligent endangerment, disorderly conduct, four counts of animal cruelty, five counts of criminal mischief and one count of discharging a firearm in the city limits. Additional charges on Brown include driving with an expired registration and driving on a suspended driver’s license. He acquired a prior drunk driving charge last month in Idaho.