LARGO, Fla. (WFLA) – People living in a Largo neighborhood are upset after seeing a truck plow through a puddle while a mother duck and her ducklings were playing in the water, killing two of the birds.
Police say the man behind the wheel ran the birds down on purpose.
“The mom and all her babies came through here. I was talking to them. I was sitting in that chair. I was talking to the ducks, and she’s talking back at me. Quack, quack, quacking back at me,” Steven Sorensen said.
Sorensen is just one of many neighbors that enjoy the ducks in their Whispering Pines Community.
“I mean, there’s a lot of people out here that like to feed the ducks and seeing the wildlife,” he said.
On Sunday evening, neighbors say they heard a revving engine and then a scream.
“I come out of the driveway when I see the ducks squirming in the road and blood everywhere, and I just start freaking out,” teenager Sharee Young said. “I drop everything and run towards them.”
Neighbors saw a white Ford truck slow for a speed bump and then speed up to plow right into the mother duck and her ducklings playing in the puddle.
“His head was cracked wide open. I picked him up and I held his head so it would at least help stop the bleeding. I looked up to my dad and said, ‘I don’t know what to do. What do I do with this? I don’t know what to do,'” Young recalled.
Two of three ducklings hit were killed instantly. A third was taken to an emergency veterinary center for help.
Witnesses point to James Clairmont as the driver. When Largo police questioned him two hours later, they say Clairmont denied running over the animals, but could not explain how his truck tires had duck feathers and blood on them.
Officers also say Clairmont spoke with slurred speech and reeked of alcohol.
“He says he didn’t see any ducklings. How do you not see any ducklings that are that tall? Walking across the street, and a whole flock of them! That’s stupid,” Sorensen said.
Clairmont is facing one charge of aggravated animal cruelty. He has since posted his $5,000 bond.
