Monkey Death Arrest: Idaho Police Have Suspect In Custody

Boise, ID – An arrest has been made into the brutal beathing death of a monkey at a local zoo, according to CNN.

When someone decided to break into the Zoo Boise early Saturday morning, the individual decided to beat a patas monkey to death. Police believe that 22-year-old Michael J. Watkins is one of the two men responsible for this heinous crime. The suspect is facing charges of burglary and grand theft.

“I speak for many of us in the police department and the community who were angered and outraged over this senseless crime,” Boise Police Chief Michael Masterson explained. “As usual, it was a combination of a citizen tip and good police work that led us to the arrest in this case.”

Security guards stumbled across the two men inside the zoo early Saturday morning. When the employees approached the suspects, they immediately ran for the exits. During their search for the intruders, security officers discovered the injured patas monkey near an exhibit.

The death of the monkey was caused by blunt force trauma to the head and neck. Although the animal was alive when security guards happened upon the little guy, it later died as a result of its injuries.

According to USA Today, authorities are unsure if the break-in at Zoo Boise was a prank that went horribly awry or something much more sinister and mean-spirited. Investigators have yet to thoroughly interview the suspect as of this writing.

Not surprisingly, news of the patas monkey’s death have hit zoo officials rather hard. Zoo director Steve Burns said this sort of thing doesn’t happen all the time.

“I’ve been here for 15 years, and I don’t remember any cases where we’ve had a visitor intentionally or even accidentally injure an animal,” Burns explained. “People in Boise are usually pretty respectful. We were just saying the other day that we can’t even remember the last time that someone was found inside the zoo after hours. The security guards do a really good job.”

Although an arrest regarding the patas monkey death has been made, it’s unclear what sort of punishment the suspect will receive for his crime.