LAS VEGAS (KSNV MyNews3) -- Two chimpanzees escaped from a private home in a northwest valley neighborhood, leading police to shoot and kill one of them.
The other chimp was tranquilized and brought back to that same home.
The caretakers of those animals say police did the right thing.
The chimps can be a public danger. While talking to their caretakers, News 3 cameras saw what they meant.
News 3 cameras captured C.J., the same chimp who officers tranquilized and returned after it got loose earlier in the day, grabbing and holding onto an “Inside Edition” photographer,
The message from caretaker Timmi DeRosa: animals kept in captivity are dangerous.
Other video from a News 3 viewer's cell phone shows metro officers shooting and killing C.J.'s cage mate, Buddy.
Officers said they feared both creatures on the loose posed a public danger.
Miguel Gutierrez, another caretaker who was there when this all went down, described the raw emotion he had to endure.
DeRosa says this was a tragic and freak incident. The lesson: that population control of exotic animals needs to be something we do not ignore.
