Calls came into the Monterey County Sheriff's Office early Tuesday morning.
Residents in the unincorporated area of Prunedale, about 10 miles northwest of Salinas, reported numerous gunshots in the dark around 3:25 a.m. near a local vineyard.
The Sheriff's Office, using robocalls, ordered residents within a five-mile radius to shelter in place while its SWAT team responded. The department also requested drone assistance from the nearby Seaside Fire Department and the Gonzales Police Department.
Authorities were unsure of what to expect.
What they found was an animal slaughter. In total, 81 creatures (miniature horses, goats, rabbits, guinea pigs, chickens, ducks and other birds) were killed.
According to the Sheriff's Office, a suspect, Vicente Joseph Arroyo, 39, was arrested without incident. Authorities estimate he killed the animals over the course of three hours.
Arroyo lived on the property where the animals were located, according to Monterey County Sheriff's spokesman Maj. Andres Rosas. The animals were kept in a variety of cages and enclosures.
The suspect did not work at the location, authorities said, but no other details were provided.
Arroyo was booked on suspicion of six felonies, including intentional discharge of a firearm with gross negligence, cruelty to animals, unlawful possession of an assault weapon, vandalism totaling $400 or more, making criminal threats and terrorizing, all while in possession of a firearm as a felon.
A representative for Arroyo was not immediately available.
As of Wednesday afternoon, a court date had not been set for Arroyo.
His bail was initially set at $50,000, but department investigators successfully petitioned a county judge to raise the limit to $1 million, Rosas said.
“I’ve been in law enforcement for 24 years and I’ve never seen anything like this,” Rosas said in a telephone interview. “As an animal lover, they become part of your family, and to have them taken away like this is horrible.”
The Sheriff's Office said it executed a search warrant at the property and found seven firearms, including long rifles, shotguns and pistols, as well as an illegal assault weapon and two ghost guns. Rosas estimated that about 2,000 rounds of ammunition of various calibers were recovered.
When officers arrived at the scene in the dark rural area between a vineyard, a nursery and a farm, they said they could hear gunshots of various calibers.
The vegetation and darkness of the surrounding area concerned officers, who called for SWAT assistance and drone reinforcements.
“The place where we finally set up our command center was 15 meters from some horses that the agents didn’t notice until daylight,” Rosas said. “That’s how dark it was.”
A drone found what the Sheriff's Office said was a crashed vehicle in the vineyard. Police responded with an armored unit that eventually reached Arroyo, who was ordered to surrender.
The Monterey County SPCA's Humane Investigations team assisted the Sheriff's Office at the scene, which was described as “horrible and heartbreaking” by Monterey County SPCA spokeswoman Beth Brookhouser.
“All animals involved were sadly found dead, except for five severely injured budgies that needed to be humanely euthanized to end their suffering,” Brookhouser said.
“It was a tough and sad day,” he said, “but we hope our work in gathering evidence will help the sheriff’s department with this case and prevent this from happening again.”
