Locals were left horrified after witnessing a “massacre” on the Washington state coast in which a crazed Jeep driver drove through more than 20 seagulls.
According to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, an unidentified man mowed down a flock of 25 birds on the sand south of Clipsun Beach outside Long Beach around 8 p.m. Saturday, then fatally injured one of the birds by hooking it and hooking the grill of his Jeep Cherokee.
Authorities said the same Jeep nearly struck two people walking their dog on the beach.
Bystanders tried to save some of the birds, but they did not die immediately.
But witnesses were able to stop the driver briefly and take photos of the driver, his vehicle and the license plate, wildlife officials said.
Authorities have identified the driver from the images and are trying to contact the man, who lives out of state.
One witness, Kim Ledyard McGhee, said the Jeep was traveling at a “very high speed” when it ran over the gulls.
The driver drove back and forth past her and her husband multiple times, and they tried to get him to stop by rolling the car over, she wrote in a Facebook post.
“After we got him outside, he still took off at high speed,” she added.
Dorothy Howard, a local resident who lives near the beach, called the reckless driving a “massacre.”
“We’re seeing a lot of natural deaths and things that have been washed up,” she said. He told KPTV. “But this was totally deliberate. It’s horrible. We’re shocked.”
Howard said he and others called police and the man who allegedly killed the bird ran away.
“He didn’t seem to have any remorse for what he did,” Howard said. “He just had a blank look on his face.”
