Paducah man now facing two felony charges in connection with animal cruelty case

MCCRACKEN COUNTY, Ky. (KFVS) - A Paducah man is now facing two felony charges in connection with an animal cruelty investigation.

Latavious Frazier, 21, was arrested and taken to the McCracken County Jail. On Friday, January 27, he was served with an arrest warrant at the jail for an additional charge.

According to the McCracken County Sheriff’s Office, after receiving more evidence from the necropsy, Frazier’s original misdemeanor charge of cruelty to animals was amended to a class D felony torture of a dog.

He is now charged with two felonies, tampering with physical evidence and torture of a dog.

According to a release from the sheriff’s office, local law enforcement received multiple phone calls in the previous weeks regarding a man dragging a dog by a leash and grabbing her by her scruff, causing her to cry. He also allegedly kicked the dog.

Law enforcement had been unable to find the man after receiving the calls.

On January 25 around 2 p.m., two city of Paducah employees saw the man on South 31st Street.

They said the man, later identified as Frazier, dragging the dog and that the dog didn’t appear to be moving. When employees tried to stop Frazier, they say he lifted the dog by the leash and then continued to drag it.

The city employees called 911 and police, sheriff’s deputies and McCracken County Animal Control responded to the area.

According to the sheriff’s office, animal control found Frazier inside an apartment building on Jefferson Street. They talked to him while Paducah police found the dog dead, hidden behind some appliances.

Deputies say Frazier was squatting in the basement of the apartment building.

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