Garfield District residents looking for possible serial pet shooter

PHOENIX (FOX 10) -- Residents in the historic Garfield District in Downtown Phoenix are on the lookout for a possible serial pet shooter.

At least three residents in the area claim their pets have been injured or killed after getting shot by a pellet gun within the last three months, and the latest victim is a one-year-old kitten. One pet owner filed a police report Tuesday, and now, Phoenix Police are looking into the scary situation.

"Roo" has had a rough life so far. She was abandoned in the middle of the street in summer 2018. She was since adopted, but that didn't prevent her from getting shot while roaming around the neighborhood. She almost didn't make it back home.

"I believe it took her that day and a half to make her way home after she got shot," said Johanna Grant.

Grant took her kitten to a veterinary hospital. An X-Ray shows a pellet lodged in Roo's leg.

"She was shot in the stomach, and it went all the way through her body to her other side, and the bullet lodged in her opposite leg," said Grant.

Knowing that the person who did this was still out there, Grant distributed her story on social media. That's when she found out that Roo wasn't the only pet who'd been shot in the area.

"Lots and lots of people, on social media, responded with pics of their cat that had been shot," said Grant. "a guy posted his five-month-old puppy was shot and killed."

Grant filed a police report. A pet detective took photos of Roo's injury. Now, the Phoenix Police Department, along with the Arizona Humane Society, is trying to track down the shooter or shooters.

"They need to suffer the consequences of what is an illegal action," said Grant, who went on to say that she believes the shooter or shooters might be targeting feral cats in the neighborhood. By spreading awareness and getting the police involved, she hopes the pet shootings will stop.