Photo: Dallas County Jail
Davion Irvin was arrested last week and was booked into the Dallas County Jail on five counts of animal cruelty non-livestock after confessing to stealing two emperor tamarin monkeys from the Dallas Zoo. The Dallas Police Department was able to make the arrest based on a tip who witnessed the man near animal exhibits at the Dallas World Aquarium.
Now, the arrest warrant affidavit, which lays out Irvin's confession, reveals shocking details about the suspicious activity happening at the Dallas Zoo over the past month.
Irvin confessed to getting past zoo security and jumping a fence when the zoo was closed, FOX 4 reports, citing the affidavit obtained by The Dallas Morning News. He removed the two monkeys from their enclosure and took a DART rail to a vacant home in Lancaster, where the monkeys were later recovered by police thanks to several tips from the public.
The 24-year-old also confessed to trying to steal a clouded leopard from the zoo, albeit unsuccessfully. He also was the one who cut a hole in the fence of a separate monkey exhibit. It remains unclear if he was responsible for the "unusual" death of one of the zoo's endangered vultures.
If Irvin were to be released from custody, he said he would go back to the Dallas Zoo and try to take more animals because "he loved them," he told police.