Man hits raccoon with 2x4 in video, raccoon dies

Joseph Amico issued notice to appear in court

COCONUT CREEK, Fla. – Video shows a man hit a raccoon with a 2-by-4.

Coconut Creek police issued a notice to appear in court to 26-year-old Joseph Amico after the video was posted to Vincenzo Carlisi's Facebook page.

The incident happened in the 6800 block of N State Road 7. According to Jeff Baker, chief executive officer of Carls Furniture, the incident happened at a business next to Carls Furniture and Amico isn't a Carls employee.

Read: News release from Carls Furniture

The video shows the raccoon come out from under a dumpster and reach out for food. Then, someone hits the raccoon, sending it squealing and scrambling away.

"Okay, you gotta go get him," one man said in the video. "Now you gotta eat him."

Local 10 stopped by Amico's home in Margate, but a woman answered the door and said he was not home.

"You guys are taking it way too serious because it's not even like that," the woman said.

She then slammed the door shut. Moments later, the door opened again and another woman yelled profanities before telling Local 10 to leave the property.

Neighbors said they did not know Amico nor his family well.

The raccoon later died. The South Florida Wildlife Center will perform a necropsy.

On Wednesday, a second raccoon was found in the same dumpster. South Florida Wildlife Rescue safely removed the animal and released it in a wooded area.

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