HENDERSON (KTNV) — A Henderson man is in custody after police say he threw a cat against a wall in a viral social media video.
It began just before 4 a.m. on Dec. 16, 2025, after the Henderson Police Department responded to an apartment complex. There, a woman told police she had gotten a video from her boyfriend that showed him throwing her cat against a wall. She said she wanted her cat back but wasn't able to get in touch with him.
Police also tried to contact the suspect, identified as 27-year-old Angel Ventura Ayala, but he wasn't answering his door nor his cell phone.
Police had already been to the apartment around 1:15 a.m. that same night for a disturbance involving rocks thrown at vehicles, one of them belonging to Ayala.
Ayala initially claimed to have no enemies and refused to file a report, later driving away in his pickup truck.
Ayala's girlfriend later admitted to throwing the rocks after they had gotten into an argument where he had threatened her with a baseball bat, body camera video showed.
Later the same day, police responded to reports of vandalism at Ayala's apartment. A woman claiming to be Ayala's sister was there to report the incident, and police asked her about the cat.
She said she had taken the cat to Pebble Maryland Animal Hospital, where the veterinarian noted bruising inside the cat's mouth and chin swelling. Police took custody of the cat to have it checked out and released to its legal owner.
Police later located Ayala, who was arrested on Dec. 18, 2025, on a charge of torture, maiming or killing an animal to threaten or terrorize.
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