Police: 3 juveniles charged, 2 adults arrested after deer found burned with rope around its neck
The deer was found lying in a Perry Hall street in the Forge Heights community on July 24.
By Jake Shindel, Jake Shindel
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PERRY HALL, Maryland (WBAL) — (Warning: Graphic Details) — Three juveniles were charged and two adults were arrested after a deer was found dead and severely burned with ropes tied around its neck, police said.
The deer was found lying in a Perry Hall street in the Forge Heights community on July 24.
Police told 11 News an investigation found that the deer had been accidentally struck by one of the suspects’ vehicles.
The suspects then set the deer on fire in the street, police said.
Ethan Cummins, 18, and Aiden Holman, 18, along with the three 17-year-old juveniles, are charged with reckless endangerment, unlawful possession of game animal and removal of deer hide, according to Baltimore County police.
“It was just a sigh of relief, because this is such a quiet neighborhood,” said one nearby resident upon hearing people were arrested and charged. “Everybody here is close.”
The resident, who wished to remain anonymous, was one of several witnesses. According to charging documents, both named and anonymous people came forward with critical information, including photos, names and an anonymous thumb drive dropped off at the local precinct.
“To know that maybe your potential friends could be involved with it, it was kind of a sigh to know that these people are getting what they deserve in the sense, and that we can just walk around the neighborhood freely again,” the resident said.
Charging documents said witnesses were the key. One witness, “stated her brother’s friend hit the deer, and then proceeded to burn it,” while others shared a photo of the deer in a cardboard box surrounded by subjects.
Authorities said they connected more dots through social media, the MVA and high school records.
Police got it wrong, though, according to an attorney for Cummins. In a statement to 11 News, attorney Thomas Maronick Jr. said: “Ethan Cummins is wrongly accused of a crime he did not commit. We expect evidence will show that he had no role whatsoever in the desecration of a deceased animal. As the case is ongoing I cannot get into further details here. But the savage social media attacks on this young man are totally undeserved and reprehensible. He deserves his day in court and we look forward to that, not to being tried on social media.”
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