FRESNO COUNTY – Authorities believe that four teenagers are responsible for the bludgeoning deaths of 920 chickens with a golf club at a Foster Farms facility in Fresno County last week.
The Fresno County Sheriff’s Office arrested 18-year-old Gabriel Quintero on Wednesday near Lemoore, along with three underage suspects who have not been named. They are a 17-year-old boy from Lemoore, a 15-year-old boy from Caruthers, and another 17-year-old boy from Caruthers.
The four teens were placed in custody and face charges of animal cruelty and burglary.
The incident happened in the 3600 block of West Swanson Avenue in Caruthers on Sept. 20. Workers at the facility called authorities after discovering nearly 1,000 dead chickens.
The Foster Farms chicken facility on Swanson in Fresno.
Deputies responding to the scene determined that the suspects had pulled back a portion of a wall and entered one of the chicken sheds. They then “used a golf club and another similar type instrument to slaughter the birds,” according to the sheriff’s office.
Foster Farms offered a reward for information leading to the suspects responsible for killing the 920 chickens, which were worth an estimated value of $5,000. After information regarding the investigation was put out to local media, several calls came in to the Sheriff’s Office, Ag Task Force and Crime Stoppers.
One tip identified the suspects as three male juveniles who lived at a residence located in the 3500 block of W. Wlkhorn Ave. Around 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, detectives went to the address where they contacted two of the juveniles. They found evidence linking the juveniles to the crime and both boys were taken into custody.
Information from the residence led detectives to identifying the other two suspects, one of whom had been identified in the original tip. At approximately 7 p.m., deputies and detectives arrived at a residence near Road 25 and Fremont near Lemoore, where they located and arrested the third juvenile.
Shortly before 9 p.m., Quintero was arrested after detectives tracked him to an apartment located in the 1500 block of N. Millbrook Ave. in Fresno.
Read More:
KABC: Foster Farms chicken massacre
NBC Bay area: 4 teens arrested after hundreds of chickens killed
