• 2025-09-10 01:11:04
• Gun Violence

MASTIC BEACH, NY — A Long Island community came together in a dramatic way recently to demand justice for a defenseless cat who was intentionally shot twice in Mastic Beach.

And now, residents' support for Coco, the injured cat, remains steadfast, as together, they are donating funds to help the wounded feline heal.

The saga began when video began circulating on social media, showing a man in a truck driving through a residential neighborhood in Mastic Beach, shooting the cat, then speeding away.

Outraged residents took action, circulating the video and demanding accountability and justice.

Suffolk County Districr Attorney Ray Tierney joined the fight, posting a video of himself with Coco on Instagram.

"On August 15, 2025, a 12-year-old cat named Coco was intentionally shot," Tierney said. "Though he survived his extensive injuries, Coco has been through a horrific ordeal."

Tierney then asked for the public's help to find surveillance footage from August 15 at around 4:15 a.m, on Monroe Drive in Mastic Beach, of a black Ford F-350 pickup truck. The person who shot Coco was driving through neighborhoods, he said.

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The outreach paid off with an arrest: According to a felony complaint at Suffolk County First District Court, at about 4:15 a.m. on August 15 on Monroe Drive in Mastic Beach, John Lettieri, 53, of Mastic, while operating a black 2003 Ford F-350 pickup truck, "with no justifiable purpose, did intentionally shoot a domestic breed, 12-year-old, tan, male cat known as 'Coco' with an unknown type of gun."

Coco is a companion animal, the complaint said.

According the complaint, home surveillance video showed Lettieri's vehicle stopping, firing an initial shot at the cat, then reversing and repositioning before firing a second shot. The second projectile shot Coco, who was on a residential property line on Monroe drive, the complaint said.

As a direct result, Coco sustained a penetrating projectile injury that was lodged in his thoracic vertebrae, causing spinal fragmentation, trauma, paralysis of both hind limbs, a pulmonary contusion, and internal hemorrhaging, the complaint said.

Lettieri was arrested and charged with aggravated cruelty to animals, Tierney said. Aggravated cruelty to animals is defined as when a person, with no justifiable purpose, intentionally kills or intentionally causes serious physical injury to a companion animal, the complaint said, adding that the aggravated cruelty was intended to cause "extreme physical pain" and was carried out in "an especially depraved or sadistic manner."

Local officials spoke out after the arrest. According to Suffolk County Legislator Jim Mazzarella: " Thanks to the swift and coordinated efforts of the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office BEAST Unit and our local police precinct, the individual allegedly responsible for the horrific shooting attack on a cat in our community is now in custody. Suffolk County has zero tolerance for animal abuse. I want to thank all levels of law enforcement for their quick action and teamwork in responding to this terrible incident. Together, we send a clear message: cruelty to animals will not be tolerated here."

Next, according to Brookhaven Town Councilwoman Karen Dunne Kesnig, Lettieri was accused of "running an illegal scrapyard" on Washington Drive in Mastic Beach, which the Town of Brookhaven got an order to enter and clear.

On Monday, she wrote: "This morning, the town's departments of law, waste management, fire prevention, and vehicle control, in conjunction with the Suffolk County Police Department, 7th Precinct, and the BEAST unit, conducted a massive cleanup of a property on Washington Drive in Mastic Beach that was being unlawfully operated as a junk/scrap metal yard."

She added: "We sincerely appreciate the work performed by all involved, as well as the outpouring of important information from the community that helped put an end to this severe public nuisance."