A 75-year-old woman was arrested Thursday, Oct. 1 after an automatic license plate reader helped Santa Ana police identify her minivan as the vehicle seen running over a puppy on surveillance footage.
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Hahn Nguyen of Anaheim was arrested on suspicion of animal cruelty and animal abandonment and booked into the Santa Ana Jail, according to police.
Her 9-month-old black and white pit bull, Blackey, died after he was run over by a minivan in Santa Ana on Sept. 8.
A minivan was seen running over the dog and staying on top of him for about 15 seconds in surveillance footage shared by police, who asked the public for help identifying the car or the woman in it. Using the license plate reader technology, police were able to identify the vehicle and arrest Nguyen on Oct. 1.
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Nguyen admitted to owning and abandoning the dog, and police found the vehicle in her garage, Santa Ana police said.
Nguyen’s boyfriend was annoyed with the dog chewing his shoes, so she decided to abandon the dog at a park, according to Officer Natalie Garcia of the Santa Ana Police Department.
Nguyen’s boyfriend told police that she told him the dog had been run over, Garcia said, but did not mention that she had run him over, and he was surprised when she was arrested.
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She did not admit to purposefully running over the dog, Garcia said.