(File Photo: Caption for Photo: police car lights at night in city with selective focus and bokeh background blur) Credit for Photo: Courtesy of Getty Images/iStockphoto/z1b)

Noah Haswell, Beaver County Radio News

(Pittsburgh, PA) According to Pittsburgh police, multiple young men will soon be facing animal cruelty charges after recent videos posted on social media in August of 2025 showed some men killing mice in the Northview Heights neighborhood of Pittsburgh by igniting fireworks after they used duct tape to put these mice on the fireworks they ignited. Pittsburgh Public Safety confirms that the Pittsburgh Police Violence Prevention Unit got notified about these videos on August 13th, 2025. The incident was thought to have happend on the 410 block of Pleasant Road and detectives went there and found a roll of tape, a plastic bin and remnants of fireworks. The mice were purchased by these men reportedly from a local pet store and after dectectives investigated, they found that the Petco stores at the Waterworks Mall and on McKnight Road in Ross Township. Three to five men who are being considered suspects of this incident got detained following a search warrant on August 14th, 2025 of the believed location  where the mice were killed. Charges related to drug possession are the charges that some of the men will also face. Both interviews with witnesses and a review of surveillance video of this incident were completed by detectives. According to police, a person of interest in this case got taken into custody on charges that are unrelated to this incident and the investigation into this incident is ongoing.