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REDFORD, Mich. (WJBK) - Police say two boys who beat a duck to death and recorded it on their cell phones are now facing animal cruelty charges.
Leanna Deornellas said she couldn't believe what she was seeing. She was in her Redford home, across the street from a park on Minock last Monday when she saw two teens doing something so terrible, she couldn't comprehend it.
"I was scared, I was screaming, I was going crazy - like - what are these kids doing?" Deornellas said.
At first she only saw one of the teens. She said he was waving his phone around and she thought he was playing Pokemon Go. Then she realized the horrible truth: he was recording video of another teen who was beating a duck.
"This kid has a stick, he takes it and he starts hitting the duck, profusely. Like, five times," she said.
Deornellas started screaming and then her boyfriend intervened.
"These kids are beating a duck. I'm like screaming, I'm freaking out, I'm hyperventilating so he runs outside. He's like, 'hey guys what are you doing to this duck? Why are you beating this duck? What did it do to you'?" she said.
The kids didn't answer. They took off on their bikes and Deornellas called 911. Police showed up and quickly caught the 15-year-old boys.
A week after the duck beating, we learned the boys will be charged as juveniles with animal cruelty. As for that cell phone video, police say they haven't seen it yet because the parents won't cooperate and unlock the phone.
Brenda Karinen lives nearby and said acts like this is how serial killers are born.
"Ted Bundy - that's how he got his start - just maiming animals and that...itmakes me sick," she said.
Other neighbors echo her sentiments and say they're alarmed to hear what happened. They'are also worried these kids do much worse if they're killing defenseless animals for no reason.
"We got this fabulous wildlife sanctuary so to speak and this is how we treat the gifts of nature? I don't get it," Karinen said.