It's possible drugs just might have been a factor in a Southern California rampage that involved a man allegedly jumping out of a third-story window, killing a dog with his bare hands and then pouring coffee all over himself after running naked through a tennis club, say authorities.
Bayron Reyes Lopez allegedly began his busy day at a San Clemente apartment, where deputies responded to reports of a loud radio at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Department.
"We get there, go in the room, the guy is gone," sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino told the Orange County Register.
Lopez is believed to have jumped from the third-story window, the newspaper reported.
Around 6 a.m., Lopez resurfaced nearby and allegedly killed a dog. Julie Donnelly, 34, told deputies she was walking her pet miniature Schnauzer, Kokanee, near the 1100 block of Calle del Cerro when a man approached her, picked up her dog, choked it and then slammed the animal into the pavement.
"He got a few feet in front of us and got into an attack-type mode -- aggressive mode -- like he was ready to lunge out at me, but instead my dog went out in front," Donnelly said.
"I know that human life is much more important than the life of an animal, but she sacrificed her life for me this morning. She bought enough time so that he didn't attack me," Donnelly said.
The man fled the area on foot, said Donnelly.
A few minutes later, deputies found Lopez at the Rancho San Clemente Tennis Club, lying naked on the ground, pouring coffee on himself.
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Before his coffee break, Lopez was allegedly running around the club naked, said a witness who called police.
Lopez, who was a maintenance worker at the tennis club, was arrested and hospitalized, Amormino said.
"He may have been under the influence of drugs," Amormino told the Register.
