The world seemed to forget about the woman whose horrfiying interaction with the police led to a national conversation around Haitian migrants after a racist rumor brigade began. Now, we finally know how that case ended.
The Canton woman, identified as 27-year-old Allexis Ferrell, was accused by police of stopping on a cat’s head and eating it at a home located on the 1100 block of 13th Street SE. The viral body camera video showed Ferrell freezing as multiple police officers approached her. She was crouched down on all fours hovering over the bloodied feline.
The cops restrained her behind her back and took videos of her face and teeth, the video shows. Authorities reported finding blood on her feet and hands as well as fur on her lips. Police were notified of the incident by a concerned neighbor who called 911 to report a Black woman who was “tweaking out real bad.” The caller told the dispatcher Ferrell was on drugs, having grabbed at random people and “eating random things off the floor.”
A simple Facebook post from a Springfield resident (like 170 miles away from the incident) about her neighbor’s daughter finding her missing cat hanging from a tree outside a Haitian family’s home became associated with the body camera footage. Vice President-elect J.D. Vance then dragged it further claiming trusted sources told him Haitian migrants in Ohio were eating cats and dogs, per CNN. Then, of course, President-elect Donald J. Trump threw the rumor out on the primary debate stage.
It didn’t take long for the internet to realize the video and the rumor were not correlated. However, the rumor caused serious emotional damage to the migrants and their children as they endured all types of racist threats.
Ferrell was charged with cruelty to companion animals, injuring animals and disorderly conduct, per jail records. She originally entered a not guilty plea by insanity. However, Monday, she changed her plea to guilty after a psychological report showed she was not insane but rather lacking remorse and showed a reckless disregard for the safety of others, according to court filings. The judge sentenced her to 12 months in prison.
“To me, you represent quite a danger to your community,” Stark County Common Pleas Judge Frank Forchione said in Monday’s hearing. “This is repulsive to me. I mean that anyone would do this to an animal. And an animal’s like a child. I don’t know if you understand that or not. I don’t know what could prompt anyone to eat a cat.”
Ferrell was also sentenced to an aditional 18 months in prison for previous felony counts of endangering children.