Man who allegedly yelled at, squeezed and attempted to bite kitten appears in court
A Thurston County sex offender appeared in court this week after a store employee reported to police that he was abusing a kitten.
Charging documents allege the man yelled at the kitten, squeezed it, attempted to bite it, and slapped it down on the counter at an Olympia MetroPCS store.
Brian L. Kim, 49, appeared in Thurston County Superior Court on Thursday. Commissioner Nathan Kortokrax found probable cause for first-degree animal cruelty charges and set bail at $50,000. Arraignment was set for Aug. 13.
According to court documents, Kim’s criminal history includes a second-degree rape conviction in 2000 in which the victim was a man with Down syndrome, and a second-degree assault conviction in 2012 for strangling a woman.
The Thurston County offender search lists Kim as a Transient Level 3 sex offender.
According to charging documents:
An employee at the MetroPCS store on Cooper Point Road Southwest in Olympia called Animal Services on July 27 to report abuse of a kitten. The employee said Kim comes to the store “all of the time” with the kitten. The employee said he had seen Kim strike the kitten’s head on the counter, that a co-worker told him Kim had done so many times, and that he feared Kim would kill the kitten.
In one instance, an employee said, Kim “slapped” the kitten down hard onto the counter and, after the employee told him not to put the kitten there, Kim picked up the kitten by the neck and screamed “See, nobody wants you!” at it before “slamming” the kitten on the floor.
During the same episode, after being asked to leave the store, Kim picked the kitten up by its neck and screamed “I own you!” while squeezing the back of the cat’s neck and stomach area.
“He then brought the kitten close to his face, screaming at it and began ‘gnashing’ his teeth in an attempt to bite it,” according to charging documents.
The kitten ran away from Kim after he dropped it on the floor, and hissed and swatted at him when he tried to pick it up.
The officer who prepared the report wrote she saw a Facebook post about Kim following a woman and “attempting to lure her to go with him” using the kitten, asking “Do you want to pet my kitty?” and following her with the kitten until the police were called.
A search warrant to remove the kitten and any other animals in Kim’s possession was executed Wednesday, during Kim’s weekly transient sex offender check-in. Detectives found the kitten in a vehicle in direct sun, with trash filling most of the vehicle and no food or water for the animal, and took the animal to Hawks Prairie Veterinary Hospital.
In court Thursday, deputy prosecuting attorney Ali Abid said a veterinarian has since reported the kitten most likely had brain swelling and/or a concussion.
This story was originally published August 2, 2019 at 10:58 AM.
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