They chased him for four months from Harlem to New Jersey to Albany — but today, Manhattan prosecutors finally pulled the accused torturer of a helpless puppy off a train in Penn Station and charged him with felony animal cruelty.
Catching Darnell Saulsbury, 27, for slashing a five-month-old puppy to death over the course of 45 minutes was simply vital, a prosecutor told a judge today — because anyone who could commit such an atrocity on an animal might do the same to a human being.
“There is a strong link between violence against animals and violence against people,” assistant district attorney Julieta Lozano told Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus in asking successfully for Saulsbury to be held without bail.
Officials say Saulsbury was caught on video surveillance attacking the helpless puppy with a broken bottle and a knife in the lobby of his building at 125th St. and St. Nicholas Avenue in Harlem.
“It would make you sick,” one law enforcement source said of the video. Saulsbury had spent some of his time on the lam with family in New Jersay, and was caught returning to the city from Albany, where he was staying with a family acquaintance, officials said.
The puppy — a pit bull — has not been identified as belonging to anyone, and died slowly, prosecutors said. Saulsbury, who has a history of mental illness and violent domestic incidents, hid from investigators with the help of his mother and sister, who covered for him and lied about his whereabouts, the prosecutor said.
He was tracked in part by phone and spending records, officials said.