Rashad Gober, a gay BLM supporter, is seemingly blaming his arrest and charge of animal cruelty for torturing three different cats on police racism.
Cambridge Police announced the arrest of Gober, 31, at his home on Thursday, and charged him with four counts of animal cruelty, dating from March to May of this year. The investigation was initially opened after the discovery of a cat called Gosha on May 6th, who was huddled underneath a car, with her legs bound by masking tape. Further analysis on the deceased cat found a large percentage of her fur missing, also concluding that she had been shot repeatedly with a BB gun, with officers concluding that she had been subject to cruel torture.
The investigation then discovered two further cases of animal cruelty that they linked together, including a BB gun being used to wound a cat called Tammy on March 3rd/4th, who survived, and the case of Buddy on May 5th, who had suffered chemical burns. Posts on social media show an account under Gober’s name stupidly claiming that he had rescued Buddy, after seeing him injured in his yard and saving his life, which may have put him on the radar of authorities. Further posts under his Facebook account show he even claimed to have a lost cat who was tortured in the same way he allegedly tortured his feline victims.
Further evidence was discovered by maintenance man Dana Petrillo, who found “open cat food containers and bowls of milk spread out through the apartment in each room” of Gober’s first floor apartment, seemingly to lure as many cats as possible to their death. “There was cat food cans open in the yard right near the barrels and a camera over there facing the barrels like he was trying to catch a cat,” he said. Video footage from Gober’s landlord also showed a trail of cat food leading to his apartment door. Petrillo connected Gober to the cat torture case after seeing a flyer regarding one of the cats.
A Cambridge homeowner says this is video a trail of cat food his tenant left to lure cats into a 1st floor apt. Today, 31 year old Rashad Gober of Hurley St. pleaded not guilty to 4 counts animal cruelty, for allegedly killing one cat/torturing two others. @NBC10Boston pic.twitter.com/3yne2qtLEc
— Kathryn Sotnik NBC10 Boston (@KatNBCBoston) July 1, 2021
Google search results taken from Gober’s phone show that he repeatedly looked up the best ways to torture cats, with queries including:
- Ways to torture a cat without killing it
- What happens if you throw bleach on a cat
- Cat chemical burn
- Sounds to lure cats
- Keeping a cat hostage
Despite Gober being into cat torture, he portrayed himself as a proud supporter of BLM on social media, even going so far as to write himself a mock obituary in 2016, imagining himself being killed by a racist white police officer. Photos show him in t-shirts supportive of the LGBT community, with slogans such as “why be racist, sexist, homophobic, or transphobic, when you could just be quiet?”
READ MORE: FRANCE: ‘Teens’ Microwave Cat, Post Images on Social Media
In a series of tweets a few days before his arrest and charge, potentially at the time of his questioning, Gober attempted to blame the actions of the police on racism, not the fact that he had clearly behaved suspiciously enough to be called in. “I seriously hate [Boston],” Gober tweeted. “This is the most racist place I’ve ever lived and I grew up in South Carolina.” He proceeded to describe Cambridge Police as “the most incompetent group of insecure pieces of sh*t that I’ve ever encountered,” and said they should be ashamed of themselves.
I seriously hate @CityOfBoston — this is the most racist place I’ve ever lived and I grew up in South Carolina
— RJG (@rashadjgober) June 27, 2021
Reports even emerged that the white liberal community, who had “got played” by Gober, even seemingly contacted Massachusetts State Representative Mike Connolly, a radical anti-police BLM supporter, on his behalf – according to online posts, Connolly then “went out of his way” to get in touch with Gober and assure him he would be able to fight for him against the seemingly racist police.
One of those who reached out to Connolly was Buddy’s owner himself, Craig Garvin, who in a statement said that he had “made us feel sympathy for you when you reached out to us with a moving story about how a raid by the police had left you distraught and emotionally damaged,” adding that it was “obvious from these deceptions that you wanted a larger impact than just the harm of an animal.”
If convicted, Gober could face up to seven years in prison and a fine of $5,000, as animal cruelty is a felony crime in Massachusetts.
