Los Angeles Police have arrested a man who was allegedly seen on video dropping a seven-month-old puppy down a stairwell in the city’s Koreatown neighborhood.
Joeboury Coleman, 27, faces a charge of animal cruelty and was being held without bond on Tuesday.
Officers from LAPD’s Rampart Division responded to an apartment complex in the 4000 block of Oakwood Avenue on Sunday after “concerned citizens” saw video of the abuse on social media, police said.
At least two cameras captured footage of a shirtless man carrying the whimpering puppy by its neck up to a railing and then dropping it down the stairway of the multi-story building. The video shows the dog survived and ran back up the stairs.
“Officers observed and detained the male individual depicted in the social media posts in the alley behind the location,” police said in a statement announcing Coleman’s arrest. “They conducted a follow-up to the individual’s apartment and located the dog shown in the social media video, kicked and thrown from the stairway.”
Police said the dog was transported to a local animal shelter for treatment of a broken hind leg consistent with a fall. The dog was also malnourished, police said.