Woman Accused Of Throwing Cat From Third-Floor Balcony Is Charged

A New Jersey woman has been charged with animal cruelty after a disturbing video appeared to show her tossing a cat from a third-story balcony.

Tikeemah Lassiter, 19, of Clinton, New Jersey, was arrested and charged on Saturday, Newark police announced.

The video captures someone laughing as the animal falls onto the pavement.

“Really? It’s dead?” a woman in the room can be heard asking as the camera zooms in on the cat lying motionless on the sidewalk below. After a brief pause, the cat moves its head.

It’s unclear who filmed the footage, which can be seen below.

The cat survived the attack and the New Jersey Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals took it in, police said.

“The agency is having the animal examined by a veterinarian and will determine appropriate placement for the cat,” police said in a release.

Yasmin Rivera, a Newark woman who says she cared for the cat before it was turned over to the NJSPCA, later posted videos of the animal on Facebook.

A NJSPCA spokesman told The Huffington Post that the cat in Rivera’s videos is the same one that was flung from the balcony.

According to police, Lassiter was visiting relatives in Newark on Dec. 1 when she threw the cat. Someone flagged the video to police after seeing the footage on social media.

“This was a horrible display of animal cruelty and very disturbing video to watch,” Steve Shatkin, president of NJSPCA, said in a statement on Sunday. “We thank the Newark Police Department for the hard work and collaboration with the NJSPCA.”