Houston police arrest alleged murder suspect who fled with tiger; animal still missing

A murder suspect seen absconding with a tiger has been arrested, but the fat cat is still on the lam.

Police on Monday evening arrested Victor Hugo Cuevas, 26, at his parents house in Richmond, Texas, just outside Houston after he was seen fleeing with a tiger that had been roaming a Houston neighborhood. He was charged with evading arrest, a felony, and his bail for a murder charge was revoked.

His attorney said Cuevas had been planning to surrender.

“Victor Hugo Cuevas is in custody,” the Houston Police Department tweeted. “The whereabouts of the tiger are not yet known.”

Police at first thought Cuevas owned the tiger, but he has denied it.

Cuevas was seen pulling the ferocious animal into the house it had apparently escaped from, then loading it into a white Jeep Cherokee and speeding off, KHOU-TV reported earlier Monday. He led cops on a short chase before they lost him.

Cuevas had been out on bond for a 2017 murder in Fort Bend County, Houston Police Ron Commander Borza told KHOU. He’d been arrested in July 2020 and free on bail since November. He has argued he was acting in self-defense.

Victor Hugo Cuevas

Neighbor Jose Ramos spotted the mega-feline lounging in the grass across the street from his home at around 8 p.m. Sunday, he told KHOU. He quickly posted on a neighborhood blog to warn fellow residents, and called 911.

“It was very scary because this is a very family-oriented community, and you see lots of kids and baby strollers,” Ramos told KHOU. “And people taking their pets, dogs and walking them. So again, the first thing I was thought was to alert the community so everybody would stay home.”

An off-duty deputy got wind of the loose predator and showed up brandishing a gun, as bystanders urged him not to shoot the innocent animal.

Cuevas now has a felony evading-arrest charge added to his murder accusation, Houston Police said.

Cuevas’s attorney has argued that Cuevas was acting in self-defense when he shot Osiekhuemen Omobhude in 2017 outside a sushi restaurant, the Houston Chronicle reported.

“If they have a warrant for him, then we will of course surrender ourselves,” attorney Michael Elliott told the Houston Chronicle before Cuevas was apprehended. “He’s not going to run from anything.”

Moreover, he said, he did not even know if the tiger belonged to his client.

“People are making a lot of assumptions that Victor Cuevas is the owner of this tiger,” he told the Chronicle.

“The tiger portion of the investigation is continuing,” police said.