Remeber that story a few years ago when the cats jumped over the the mote and malled the shit out of a couple of kids that were teasing it.
This happened in San Francisco, if that is the story you're talking about.
The kids were using wrist rockets and shooting the animals, while drinking. A friend of mine is a SFPD patrolman and was on scene.
The animal had jumped over the fence and was wondering past people completely innocently. But once the animal found its attackers, it pounced, killing one on site and seriously injuring the other 2 while I think one of the 2 later passed away. The reason why the animal was killed was because it was a fluke shot. My friend said that all the shots taken were just bouncing off the animal and they were waiting for high powered rifles until the fluke shot occurred.