Brooklyn Man Charged After Raid Turns Up Alligator, 9 Snakes At Home

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A Brooklyn man is under arrest after police raided his home Tuesday and discovered an alligator and several snakes.

The NYPD said they were tipped off about the reptiles and obtained a warrant to search the home on Atlantic Avenue, 1010 WINS reported.

The 7:20 a.m. raid turned up nine boa constrictors and an alligator, CBS2 Valerie Castro reported.

Johnnie Morgan, 44, was arrested and charged with reckless endangerment, police said.

"He's a very respectable and a very kind person, he didn't bother nobody, he didn't do anything to anybody," said friend Nisa Dickson.

Sources tell Castro Morgan has been in trouble before and was arrested in 2013 for possession illegal reptiles and in 2012 for feeding live chickens to snakes on a public sidewalk.

Dickson said the suspect loved the animals like family and claims they were harmless.

"It's a baby, it wasn't like it was 6 feet long where they had to be like oh my god, someone's going to die, no it was just a baby," Dickson said.

The reptiles were taken to the Bronx Zoo