A Bellevue man has been charged with first-degree animal cruelty after an incident at a Kirkland park. Joshua Omernick, 36, “freely admitted” to killing a duck he was feeding bread to Sept. 10 at Marina Park, according to charging papers.

Witnesses state in charging papers that Omernick was, “acting odd just before the incident.”

“(He) was sitting next to his friend when he suddenly reached out and grabbed a large mallard duck by its head/neck and began to violently swing it around continuously and vigorously until he tore the animal’s head from its body,” the papers state.

Witnesses included young children.

Omernick admitted this to the police, stating he didn’t mean for the duck’s head to come off, according to a report from the department.

The report went on to say, “Omernick seemed to lack affect when describing his actions.” According to the police report, after being arrested at the park, he provided a post-Miranda confession to officers before being booked into jail.

Omernick allegedly ripped the head off the duck at the park just after 5 p.m., when several disturbed onlookers called 911, prompting multiple Kirkland police officers to arrive on the scene. The friend told police Omernick has mental health issues and acts impulsively, the charges state.

According to the charging papers, Omernick told Kirkland officers he “wanted to see what it felt like to kill it,” and he was “hungry and wanted to eat (the duck).”

“He said he recently caught a large fish with his bare hands and it made him feel ‘tribal,’ and he thinks that also compelled him to kill the duck,” Deputy Prosecutor Raul Martinez wrote in the charging papers.

Officers noted the duck’s “protruding neck stem injuries indicated the head had been roughly torn from the body in a manner that likely resulted in the duck suffering extreme misery before its death,” Martinez wrote.

Omernick, who has three previous domestic violence assault convictions, appeared to be intoxicated at the park as well, according to police.

Omernick, whose bail was set at $5,000, will be arraigned on Sept. 26 in King County Superior Court.