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Disturbing Video Shows Driver Hitting Mother Duck In Citrus Heights

CITRUS HEIGHTS (CBS13) — Many in the Citrus Heights community are disturbed after an incident involving a car that ran over a family of ducks as they crossed the road.

The mother duck died shortly after, and witnesses who captured the whole thing on camera are hoping whoever did this comes forward.

Ducks are well-known friends in this community, and neighbors say they often see them hanging out outside their home

"Every single morning I'll come walking the dog and we'll see a family of 10-15 of them just wandering through," said Brian Nash who lives nearby.

But early Saturday at the intersection of Fair Oaks Boulevard and Sunrise East Way, what started off as a picture perfect moment — a family of ducks crossing the road, quickly shifted into a tragic scene.

"All of a sudden the light turns green, and it just changed, the woman in the car just gunned it," said Nash.

Nash was on the road at the time and jumped into action to help, but it was Jesse Belle and his girlfriend who captured the video.

"First I was sad, then I got really angry because she didn't care she did it; if you felt something like that you would have pulled over," said Kylie Giles.

Witnesses say the ducklings quickly scattered, but the mother duck was badly injured.

"You can tell it was in a lot of pain when I picked it up, the leg was obviously broken," said Nash.

Jessie and Kylie not only took the video but went after the female driver who didn't stop. Police say, there could be extenuating circumstances.

"Was the driver distracted? Did the driver see the duck? Clearly, the ducks are at a much lower level than a human would be in a crosswalk," said Lt. David Gutierrez.

Citrus Heights police say they're investigating and the driver could face charges.

"If we can prove criminal intent -- that they intentionally ran over the duck to injure the duck -- they could potentially face misdemeanor fish and game charges," said Gutierrez.

The community now just wants drivers to be more responsible behind the wheel.

Police say while this incident was sad to see, if an animal does jump out in front of your vehicle, they would rather you not swerve and potentially injure yourself or someone else in another vehicle.

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