Suspect in Friday shooting now linked to animal cruelty case

A 28-year-old man jailed Friday on suspicion of attempted first-degree murder is also being investigated for possible animal abuse after video surfaced of a kitten being thrown against the wall of a house and being fatally injured, Wichita police said Monday.

The 16-week-old kitten was attacked by the man as he waited for his girlfriend to return home from an Old Town nightclub early Friday, Lt. Jeff Gilmore said.

Video of the kitten being thrown against the wall twice was shot on Snapchat and was captured by others who posted it on other social media, Gilmore said. It “has since gone viral,” he said.

The kitten was taken to an animal hospital for treatment, but was euthanized because of the severity of its injuries, Capt. Jeff Weible said.

The suspect in the shooting incident, Damion Looney, now faces potential charges of animal cruelty as well, Gilmore said.

Police offered this account of events from late Thursday and early Friday:

Looney and his 23-year-old girlfriend were at Club Indigo in Old Town when Looney became upset at his girlfriend’s behavior. He pepper-sprayed her and both were escorted from the club.

Looney drove to the house in the 300 block of North Elizabeth that he shared with his girlfriend and waited for her to return with a friend. Police say they think that while he was waiting, he took a Snapchat video of her kitten being thrown twice against a wall and suffering serious injuries.

The video was posted to the girlfriend’s Snapchat account, though she was not home when it happened. The video included a post claiming she also killed Looney’s dog; police said the dog died several months ago and was not directly related to what happened last week.

“We have tied the video back to him,” Gilmore said. “At this time, he is our only suspect in this case.

“There was some vindictiveness there,” he said later on Monday. “He was doing this and putting it out there to harm her.”

The girlfriend returned with a male friend “who was trying to protect her” from Looney after the incident in Old Town, Gilmore said.

The woman and the friend were inside the house and Looney was outside at one point, Gilmore said. Looney is alleged to have fired a shot at the friend through the front door, which had a glass pane in its upper half.

“He was shot in the face,” Gilmore said of the 24-year-old friend of the girlfriend.

Four shots were fired, Gilmore said, including two into the floor. The girlfriend called friends to help her, and one of them – a 21-year-old man – was reportedly pistol-whipped by Looney.

Looney left before police arrived but was arrested a few blocks away the next morning.

He is being held on $250,000 bond in the Sedgwick County Jail on suspicion of offenses that include attempted first-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated battery, aggravated robbery and aggravated kidnapping.

Investigators will present the case to the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s Office on Tuesday, when animal cruelty charges will also be considered. Animal cruelty is a felony in Sedgwick County.

“We take them very seriously,” Gilmore said of animal abuse cases.

Someone alerted police on Friday afternoon after seeing video of the kitten being thrown, Weible said.

“The video was crucial to this case” because it showed how the kitten was injured, Gilmore said. “It was just great, valuable evidence.”

Wichita police have received calls from around the country since the video was posted online.

“People are extremely upset” about the abuse of the kitten, Gilmore said, adding that he has not seen such a strong national response to a local case before.

About four to six cases of animal cruelty are reported in Sedgwick County each year, Gilmore said.

This story was originally published July 27, 2015 at 9:30 AM with the headline "Suspect in Friday shooting now linked to animal cruelty case."