Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office credits community for helping track down teenage boy accused of killing 4 chickens

ISLA VISTA, Calif. — A sense of temporary relief washed over community members like Dennis Berger, who were hoping the masked killer of the four Isla Vista chickens would finally be found.

“I'm very glad that it was caught and caught quickly,” said Berger.

It took 10 days from the time the incident occurred to identify and arrest the suspect.

Deputies arrested the 14-year-old on Thursday in Isla Vista after responding to a call from a witness.

The Sheriff’s Office circulated photos of the boy and the bicycle he was using after he allegedly killed the chickens at St Michael's Episcopal Church on June 16. They also said they found evidence linking the boy to the animal abuse. 

“I saw the arrest near the end of it. I think a community member found him and called the cops and they got him a lot of people were watching. It was, you know, I think a little traumatic to see, you know, a 14 year old getting arrested,” said Ash Valenti, who lives in Isla Vista.

Ash Valenti said the chickens meant a lot to him, but thinks the prison system is not a fruitful way to rehabilitate perpetrators of crime.

“The system of policing and criminal injustice as we know it tends to traumatize and ostracize people further. When people who commit horrible things tend to be people who are in the most in need of support. And hopefully we can together find some ways of holding them accountable for their actions and seeing if more support can be helpful. Maybe some mentorship, maybe some community accountability circles where we can help them understand the value of life, the value of the chickens' lives, value of all life, the value of his own life, too, and that he's worthy of having a community that supports him, and so were those chickens, and so are all the other animals and people in this world,” said Valenti.

The boy has been released to his guardian, making some community members apprehensive.

“I'm appalled that they released [him] and he should not be released. He could easily do this again. The fact that he was arrested does not stop him from doing something like this again,” said Dennis Berger.

It's unclear what kind of discipline the 14-year-old will face at this time.
  
“The suspect in this crime is not yet an adult. And so there's a lot of things that are going to look different for the way that justice is served in this case. And, you know, one of those things is that we don't release the name of the juvenile and that their case is forwarded to juvenile probation for review and and proceed from there,” said Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office Spokesperson Raquel Zick.

Deputies are also attempting to locate the owner of the white bicycle that the boy was riding.