An elderly Dacula man is facing charges of fatally shooting his neighbor’s cat.

According to a report taken by Gwinnett County Police, 74-year-old Larry Rooks shot at the cat named “Belly Rub” from 60 yards away complaining it was coming into his yard to give his dog fleas.

Another neighbor, who witnessed the shooting, called the cat’s owner Lavern Wallace.

”The man had no right to do what he did; animals outside are going to get fleas,” says the 70-year-old Wallace.

She and her sister, Marie Nichols, own several cats and take in strays.

They complain Rooks can often be heard taking “pot shots” at night.

“I said, ‘if he’ll do that to that cat, what do you think he’d do to me’,” Nichols tells WSB’s Sandra Parrish.

In the police report, Rooks told the officer:  “I knew I was not going to miss my shot because that rifle is pretty accurate,” referring to his Winchester .22 rifle.

He says in the report he knew he had hit the cat because it jumped up in the air.  The witness says it died in bushes next to her home.

“You don’t kill things like that; God will get you,” says Wallace.

Rooks is charged with one count of animal cruelty.  A necropsy is scheduled on the cat Thursday.

A woman who identified herself as Rooks’ daughter says he had just had surgery and was not available for comment.