Witnesses who saw a group of men beating a raccoon to death on University Hill last week — with a baseball bat, machete and hockey stick — expressed skepticism about their claims that they were “putting it out of its misery,” according to a police report.

And, according to the report, one of the suspects later acknowledged to police that the group was “pumped up” and “excited” about killing the raccoon, which regularly visited their trash cans.

Nicholas Philip Foti, Lucas Holton and August Quinn Noble, all 19, were arrested Wednesday on suspicion of felony aggravated animal cruelty after several neighbors told police they had beaten a raccoon at their residence in the 1000 block of 11th Street.

According to the report, the neighbors who called were visibly upset, with one of them, Allegra Brewer, telling police it was “the most barbaric thing she had ever witnessed.”

The incident happened around 6 p.m. Nov. 7.

No one answered the door Thursday at the University Hill home where the suspects live together. Foti did not return a phone call seeking comment.

Foti and Noble are listed as students on the University of Colorado website. Holton told police he attends Front Range Community College.

According to police, Foti told officers he hit the raccoon with a baseball bat to scare it because it was going through his trash. When he realized he had hit it harder than he meant to, he decided to “put down” the animal.

Holton told police he heard noise outside and saw the raccoon squirming after Foti hit it, and Holton used his machete to “put it out of its misery.” In a later interview, Holton told police the men also were “excited about it.”

Another roommate told police he “got scared and ran around the east side of the house,” the report said. “He said he knows that raccoons are ‘vicious’ and didn’t know what it might do.”

Noble initially told police he never hit the raccoon, but after he was identified by witnesses, he told police he hit it with a hockey stick as it ran past him.

According to the report, police took the bat — a Louisville Slugger — and the machete as evidence. Foti then repeated that he killed the raccoon to be humane.

“Yeah, it’s not like we were trying to brutally murder it,” Holton told police.

“Well, it was kind of brutal,” Foti said, according to the report. “I’ll give you that.”

When told that the suspects claimed they were putting the raccoon out of its misery, the neighbors who saw it said it didn’t look that way to them.

“They were goofing off, having a good time,” Carly Friedman, who witnessed the incident, told police. She said the men were laughing and saying “Get it!”

Brewer, another witness, said the men looked like they were having fun.

“They were proud of what they were doing, saying ‘Yeah, go get it!'” Brewer said, according to the report.

A necropsy performed at Colorado State University found the raccoon died of blunt-force trauma, according to police.

Under Colorado law, someone commits aggravated animal cruelty when he or she “knowingly tortures, needlessly mutilates, or needlessly kills an animal.”

A hearing for filing of charges against Noble is scheduled for Tuesday. Foti and Holton are scheduled to be charged Dec. 2.

“Animal cruelty cases are a priority for this office,” said District Attorney Stan Garnett, who has assigned a prosecutor to specialize in such cases. “We haven’t charged this case yet because we haven’t closely reviewed the facts yet.”