‘I hid in my car, and I waited’: Animal control officer recounts capturing alleged cat-killer

A Sacramento County animal control officer says patience, security footage, and several weeks of quiet surveillance helped authorities identify a man accused of brutally killing an elderly neighborhood cat.

In a FOX40 News video report, reporter Sierra Krug spoke with Animal Control Officer Zoe McCurnin, who described how she tracked the suspect’s repeated visits to a South Sacramento neighborhood before spotting him from inside her own car and alerting sheriff’s deputies.

The suspect, identified in the report as 30-year-old Adrian Cruz, is accused of beating an old, nearly blind and deaf stray cat to death in April. He has not been convicted, and his case remains before the court.

McCurnin said the violence captured on video was deeply upsetting, but it also gave investigators a path forward.

“It’s a living thing that not only just lost its life, but it lost its life horrifically,” she told Krug.

Doorbell Video Captured The First Incident

According to Krug’s report, the investigation began after a resident contacted Sacramento County Animal Control in April.

A doorbell camera had recorded a man, later believed by authorities to be Cruz, arriving near a home along Sun Florin Drive on an electric scooter. The man was then accused of killing one of several stray cats that regularly gathered in the area to be fed by neighbors.

The victim was described as elderly, nearly blind, and deaf, making the alleged attack especially troubling to those who cared for the neighborhood animals.

For McCurnin, the footage was difficult to watch. She has spent much of her life working to protect animals, and she said she was determined not to dismiss the case simply because the victim was a stray.

“I really wanted to make sure that we found him and held him accountable for doing this to an animal, because people don’t take it as seriously as when humans get hurt,” she said.

That concern is understandable. Animals living outdoors may not have one legal owner standing beside them, but they can still become familiar and valued parts of a neighborhood, particularly when residents feed them and watch over them each day.

A Second Visit Revealed A Pattern

McCurnin told FOX40 that the original caller contacted her again about a week later after the same man appeared to return to the area.

This time, he reportedly arrived by car at roughly the same time and on the same day of the week as his earlier visit. Security footage showed him approaching one of the cats and attempting to grab it.

“He walked up, tried to grab one of the cats,” McCurnin recalled. “Immediately it ran away and he went back to his car.”

That second appearance changed the nature of the investigation. Instead of an isolated incident involving a person who might never return, officers now had reason to believe the suspect was following a recognizable routine.

The detail was small, but it gave McCurnin something investigators often need: a place and time where the person might appear again.

Rather than waiting for another animal to be harmed, she began planning a stakeout.

‘I Hid In My Car, And I Waited’

Krug reported that McCurnin spent the following weeks watching the neighborhood and trying to catch the suspect when he returned.

The officer used her personal vehicle so she would not immediately attract attention. She parked, remained out of sight, and waited through the hours when the man had previously appeared.

“I hid in my car, and I waited,” McCurnin said while describing the surveillance effort.

One morning, the strategy worked. She saw the man return for a third time and immediately contacted Sacramento County sheriff’s deputies.

The moment was not the result of a dramatic chase or a sudden break in the case. It came from studying the earlier footage, noticing the suspect’s habits, and being willing to sit quietly for repeated periods without knowing whether he would appear.

That kind of patient work can be easy to overlook, yet it is often what turns scattered reports into an identifiable suspect. In this case, McCurnin believed waiting was necessary because another visit could have placed a second cat in danger.

Search Warrant Uncovered Alleged Evidence

After the suspect was identified, authorities obtained a search warrant and went to his home, according to McCurnin.

She said investigators found clothing and other items that appeared to match what the man had worn in the security recording.

“We went to his house [with] the search warrant, and that was where they found everything he was wearing in the video – the gloves he had on that had cat fur all over them, everything to indicate that this was the correct suspect,” McCurnin told Krug.

FOX40 also recorded Cruz leaving Sacramento Superior Court following an earlier appearance. When a reporter asked whether he had anything to say about the charges, he replied, “No comment.”

His most recent court appearance was postponed, and Krug reported that he is expected to return to court in August.

Because the case is still pending, the allegations against Cruz will have to be tested through the legal process. The evidence described by McCurnin explains why investigators focused on him, but a court will ultimately determine the outcome.

Giving A Stray Animal A Voice

McCurnin said her motivation extended beyond identifying a suspect. She wanted the death of the elderly cat to be treated as a serious loss rather than dismissed because the animal lived outdoors and did not have a traditional owner.

“I just felt like the situation was so horrific,” she said. “It doesn’t matter if this was just a stray cat and the lady didn’t technically own the cat, it’s still a life that he took away.”

She also expressed concern that cruelty toward an animal could point to the possibility of more harmful conduct in the future.

“It could result in even more horrific things that this person’s possibly doing later on,” McCurnin said.

Her comments reflect one of the central difficulties in animal cruelty investigations: the victim cannot describe what happened, identify an attacker, or ask authorities to intervene. Officers must depend on witnesses, cameras, physical evidence, and the persistence of people willing to report suspicious behavior.

In this case, a resident’s doorbell camera documented the original allegation, a second report exposed a pattern, and McCurnin’s stakeout helped authorities locate the man they believed was responsible.

The investigation also shows why neighborhood reports can matter, even when the animal involved is not formally owned. Without the resident continuing to watch the area and contacting animal control again, the suspect’s return may have gone unnoticed.

A Case Built Through Persistence

Krug’s FOX40 report presents McCurnin as an officer who viewed the case not simply as another complaint, but as a responsibility to speak for an animal that could not defend itself.

The investigation required several steps, none of which guaranteed success. McCurnin had to review disturbing footage, recognize the timing of the second visit, predict that the man might return again, and spend weeks waiting in an unmarked personal car.

Her effort eventually allowed deputies to move forward with a search warrant and gather items that investigators said connected Cruz to the recorded incident.

The court case is still unresolved, and Cruz remains accused rather than convicted. Still, McCurnin said she is relieved that she was able to help bring the allegations before the justice system.

For her, the case was about making sure the life of an elderly stray cat was not treated as disposable.

The animal may not have belonged to one person, but it was known, fed, and cared for by people in the neighborhood. McCurnin’s account makes clear that, in her view, those circumstances made the effort to find the alleged attacker no less important.