A disturbing video surfaced in the fall of 2016 as a group of young men were videotaped dragging a deer from North Dakota’s Cannonball River and violently stabbing and suffocating it to death.
The video depicts six or seven men participating in the unsettling event which sparked outrage across both the hunting and non-hunting communities.
Finally making some headway on the investigation, North Dakota officials announced Thursday that they had filed charges against two suspects for their alleged involvement in the incident.
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William Larkin of Olean, New York and William Bighorse of Freeville, New York have been charged with unlawful possession of big game, a Class A misdemeanor punishable by a possible one-year prison sentence and upwards of $3,000 in fines.
While both suspects are believed to remain outside of North Dakota, arrest warrants were promptly issued.
North Dakota Game and Fish Department Chief Warden Robert Timian stated that the public response to the video is ultimately what lead officials to the suspects. They remain entrenched in the investigation, hoping to identify other suspects in the video.
