Goat heads and chicken blood: Texas deputies respond to ‘some kind of unknown ritual’

No one likes an animal cruelty case, but the scene inside one garage in the suburban Far West Side of San Antonio Friday night was downright gruesome.

Dismembered carcasses. Goat heads. Someone draining the blood of a chicken into a container.

Bexar County Sheriff’s deputies arrested 11people gathered in a circle in the garage of a middle-class home in the 11400 block of Bronze Sand Road, said Johnny Garcia, a Bexar County Sheriff’s Office spokesman.

“It appears that they were having some sort of unknown ritual,” Sgt. Elizabeth Gonzalez said.

Those that were arrested told deputies the ritual sacrifices were being made for religious purposes, according to a Bexar County Sheriff’s Office police report.

Multiple calls had come into police before 7 p.m., according to the San Antonio Express-News, with callers worried that animals were being sacrificed at the residence.

Those who called in the incident could see people inside the garage using knives and sacrificing the animals, WOAI reported.

“They were speaking a language the officer did not recognize,” Gonzalez said, noting that the responding deputy was fluent in English and Spanish.

More animals, both alive and dead, were strewn around the inside of the house, according to the Express-News.

Those involved in the ritual sacrifice face animal cruelty charges, which are Class A misdemeanors.

The live animals found at the residence are in the care of Bexar County Animal Control Services.

This story was originally published March 17, 2018 at 3:27 PM with the headline "Goat heads and chicken blood: Texas deputies respond to ‘some kind of unknown ritual’."