When Kelly Sweet heard the gunshots firing and the helicopter circling outside of her bedroom window, she thought a murderer was on the loose. Then she and her roommates heard the mooing.
Police officers ended their hunt for two escaped cattle Thursday night when they shot and killed the animals near Archer Road and Interstate 75.
The cattle had escaped one month earlier from a pasture near I-75 and Williston Road, said Gainesville Police Department spokesman Lt. Keith Kameg. The owner of the cattle called GPD and asked the police to help him track the animals down, Kameg said, because he did not want to shoot them himself.
The animals were considered a danger to local drivers.
"When it's dark and there is a 1,200-pound cow in the middle of the road, the cow is going to win," Kameg said.
Sweet, who lives at Stoneridge Apartments on SW 34th Street, said she heard police officers mooing over megaphones Thursday night, trying to coax the cattle out of the woods. That's when she looked outside and saw a light flashing on a cow.
"I realized they were going to kill this cow in front of me, so I just started screaming, 'Don't shoot the cow, don't shoot the cow,'" she said.
Robert Kovacs, who also lives at Stoneridge, said he was not home when the cows were killed but heard the gunshots from several blocks away. He called the police to find out what was going on. When he heard about the cattle, he couldn't believe it.
"I was like, 'There's no way,'" he said.
Police had attempted to tranquilize the cattle, but were unsuccessful, Kameg said. After being shot, the cows were returned to their owner.
During the chase, police were led through Campus Club Apartments. Kameg said.
Campus Club resident Robby Bryan said he remembered seeing the cows grazing outside of the complex earlier last week but didn't think much of it.
When he and his roommates heard the helicopter Thursday night, they thought a criminal had escaped from prison.
Emily Zajac, who also lives in Campus Club, said she made a similar assumption.
"I thought it was a police chase or something," she said. "Nothing to do with cows."
