Left: Dustin T. McCormack (Burke County Sheriff’s Office). Right: McCormack allegedly shooting his tenants’ pet cat (Harmony Chizem/Facebook).
A 37-year-old landlord in North Carolina has been arrested after he allegedly broke into the home of two of his tenants while they were on vacation, kicking and then shooting their pet cat.
Dustin T. McCormack was taken into custody last week and charged with one felony count of cruelty to animals and one felony count of breaking or entering, authorities announced.
McCormack is also facing misdemeanor charges of injury to personal property and breaking or entering.
According to a news release from the Burke County Sheriff’s Office, the agency’s Criminal Investigations and Narcotics Division on July 15 received a report involving “breaking and entering as well as animal cruelty.” The following day, a detective made contact with the victims, who provided surveillance footage of the incident purporting to show McCormack on July 10, 2024, entering their home without authorization and then kicking and shooting their cat.
“The investigator reviewed the footage and immediately identified Dustin Timothy McCormack as the person in the video,” the sheriff’s office wrote in the release. “The investigator was also shown footage from a live Facebook video made by McCormack, in which he appeared to be referring to the incident. The Investigator also found a Facebook post made by McCormack that references the victim and shows pictures of the victim’s residence.”
McCormack, who owns multiple rental properties in the area of Burke County, spoke to Charlotte, North Carolina, ABC affiliate WSOC about the incident and claimed that the tenants had never been given permission to keep a cat on the premises. He further claimed that he did not actually intend to shoot the cat, only give it a scare so it would run away.
“I had to get the cat out of the house and when I got it off the porch, it wouldn’t run so I just scared it so it would go away,” he told the station.
McCormack also claimed that he entered the home the couple had been renting to pick up some of his own belongings and found that the cat had damaged the property.
“It was locked in the house for probably two days unsupervised,” McCormack said. “It just peed all over everything. I go to my houses for random checks all the time. They were using a room. The house wasn’t theirs.”
The victims, Harmony Chizem and her boyfriend, Preston Finley, also spoke to the station about their cat, which they had named “Frank.” Chizem told WSOC that she has been “just crying” since she learned what happened to Frank.
“I kind of felt like I was having a panic attack with what had gone on because it is just so cruel,” Chizem continued.
Finley added that McCormack “should be charged for everything that he’s done.”
Chizem also posted about the incident on her Facebook page, writing that McCormick “is a monster” who “shouldn’t be trusted with anything.” She wrote that she and Finley had been renting the property for about a year prior to the incident. She also described what happened in the surveillance footage provided to police.
“[McCormack] went through our back door with a 40cal Smith n Wesson, called our cat to come outside, kicked him off the porch, then shot him,” she wrote. “The saddest part is that after he shot him he wouldn’t even take him out of his misery he left my baby there to bleed out and suffer. Nobody should have to deal with this kills me I couldn’t be there in time to save my baby.”
Chizem also posted the surveillance footage, which appears to show McCormack immediately kick the cat and that shoot at the animal as it attempted to flee.
McCormack was processed at the Burke County Jail and released after posting bond of $20,000, authorities said. He is currently scheduled to appear in court on Aug. 9.
In addition to the charges in connection to the cat incident, McCormack also has multiple cases pending in Burke and Iredell Counties, including two counts of violating a domestic violence protective order, cyberstalking, assault on a female, speeding, and resisting a public officer, reckless driving to endanger, and having an expired registration card or tag.
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