Man Seen with Tiger in Houston Neighborhood Charged with Evading Arrest, Cat Still Missing

Police arrested the Texas man who allegedly evaded pursuit on Sunday night with a tiger in his car, though the big cat remains missing.

At about 9 p.m. local time Sunday, the Houston Police Department responded to calls from neighbors who spotted a loose Bengal tiger wearing a collar roaming the front lawn of a home. One witness told authorities they saw a man wrangle the tiger back into the home before soon loading the animal into a white Jeep Cherokee and fleeing the scene, a police spokesperson told PEOPLE Monday.

Officers were able to initiate a vehicle pursuit with the suspect but eventually lost visual, the spokesperson added.

On Monday, the Houston Police Department charged the suspect, 26-year-old Victor Hugo Cuevas, with felony evading arrest, announcing later in the day that they had him in custody, although the "whereabouts of the tiger are not yet known."

KHOU previously reported that witnesses caught the unaccompanied tiger moment on camera, including in one video where people can be heard saying, "it's somebody's pet," and noting the moment someone approached the animal with a gun.

"He brought a gun," says one person in the video, watching from behind a window. Another says, "Don't kill it!"

The outlet reports that the man with the gun was an off-duty law enforcement official who aimed the weapon at the animal as the suspected owner took the tiger inside the house. Onlookers told KHOU that the suspected owner then put the animal in a vehicle and drove off.

A neighbor said, according to KPRC, that they noticed the free-roaming tiger just before 8 p.m. local time, adding that the man who claimed to be the owner said "Don't shoot!" before he "came up to the tiger himself and leaned down and kissed the tiger, and then took him by his collar."

Speaking with reporters Monday, Houston Police Department Commander Ron Borza said Cuevas was leasing the home and living there with his girlfriend, and he had been released on bond for a previous murder charge. According to the Houston Chronicle, he was charged with first-degree murder for allegedly fatally shooting someone outside a sushi restaurant in July 2017.

An attorney for Cuevas, Michael Elliott, told NBC News that he was acting in self-defense in the 2017 shooting. Elliott claimed that Cuevas does not own the tiger but might know whose pet it is and that Cuevas did not evade police.

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"They're trying to connect the dots and say that because he's the one who caught it, he must be the one who owns it and who is responsible for it," Elliott told the outlet. "Everybody wants to find the tiger. We want to find the tiger. We want to help."

Borza also said investigators hope to find the tiger safely so they can bring it to a sanctuary to live out the rest of its life. "If that tiger was to get out and do some damage yesterday, I'm sure one of these citizens would have shot the tiger, we have plenty of neighbors out here with guns, and we don't wanna see that," he said. "It's not the animal's fault. It's the breeder's fault. It's unacceptable. It shouldn't be happening at all."