A Brooklyn immigrant accused of allegedly throwing a 2-year-old dog to death from a 14th-floor balcony earlier this month was busted and released, leaving the dog’s owner shocked by the brutal murder .
Luis Gabriel Santamaria, 27, said he came home on Nov. 1 to find his beloved pitbull Keith dead on the sidewalk, after a new friend broke into his apartment after a fight around 5 a.m. and threw the beloved pup off the balcony. Thrown out. of an apartment building at 220 Montgomery St. in Crown Heights.
“I had him since he was a baby, when he was a month old. He was truly my best friend,” the grieving pet owner told The Post.
“I never thought he would do what he did, kill my dog for no reason.”
Alberto Morris, 33, was arrested Monday and charged with aggravated cruelty to animals, grand theft, criminal possession of stolen property, criminal mischief and torturing an animal, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.
He has no prior arrests and was released after an arraignment earlier this week because his charges are non-bailable under state law, meaning he remains behind bars until convicted. Cannot be kept.
“This thing gives me PTSD,” Santamaria said.
“I still walk around these streets with my head shaken, because I don’t know what this man can do. “I haven’t known him long enough to know that that could happen.”
Santamaria met Morris a few weeks before the murder, with the pair soon forming a friendship and bonding over their shared Panamanian heritage.
Morris, who lives nearby, immigrated to the United States about a year ago, Santamaria said, and the predatory animal quickly became obsessed, began sending strange messages, turning up at her house and ringing the doorbell for hours.
The night of the horrific incident, the two went to a Halloween party in Williamsburg — where Morris became intoxicated and aggressive, Santamaria said.
“It scared me,” he added, explaining how he warned his friends that Morris was trying to fight them.
“At one point, when he was being very aggressive, he grabbed my bag – I had a small side bag – and tore it from my body. We were pushing each other, I didn’t know what was happening and without telling me, he snatched my keys from my bag.
Security told Morris to get lost, which he did, Santamaria said.
Soon after, they realize that Morris has the keys to their apartment. She ordered an Uber home and also asked friends to come to her house to make sure Morris didn’t get inside.
But it was too late. Morris got there first – allegedly throwing the puppy off the balcony and then attempting to tear the Ring camera from the wall while fleeing the scene.
A distraught Santamaria eventually arrived home to find Keith dead on the sidewalk and his friend – who had gifted him the dog – crying outside his building.
“My family is still in shock over this,” he said.
“I’m really curious as to why he’s a free man after what he did. “I don’t think any kind of murderer should be let out of jail.”
Prosecutors said Morris will remain under supervised release until his next court date.
Aggravated cruelty to animals, a felony, carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison in New York State.
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