Generally, when dudes are described in police reports as “shirtless white male wearing blue jeans, cowboy boots and a cowboy hat” the next words usually aren’t “was stopped by officers and given the key to the city for being a distinguished, upstanding gentleman.”
And such is the case with Corpus Christi’s Kevin James Shumake, who was arrested Sunday night on suspicion of shooting stray cats with — drumroll, please — a bow and arrow.
The saga began when a 26-year-old woman found a (still living) “gray and white cat with an arrow through it.” She contacted police and told them about a neighbor in her apartment complex who she said “has a history of shooting at animals with a bow and arrow from his back patio,” according to a press release from the Corpus Christi Police Department.
When officers talked to the 20-year-old Shumake, according to the
release, he “admitted to shooting the ‘wild cats’ in the complex.”
Officers arrested him and found “bow and arrow equipment” in his
apartment. They then called animal control officers to try to catch the
injured cat, which “fled into a field. While searching for the cat,
officers found a dead black and white cat named ‘Batman,’ with two
arrows through it.”
The woman who called the cops, as well as her young daughter, “became
very upset, as they considered ‘Batman’ their cat,” according to the
release. And unfortunately, the injured cat didn’t fare any better than
Batman — animal control took the cat to be euthanized.
Shumake was booked into the Nueces County Jail and charged with two
counts of animal cruelty. Too bad there’s no charge for “felony
aggravated asshole-ishness,” because we think there’d be a strong case
against Shumake for that one, too.
This article appears in Dec 16-22, 2010.
