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| Shelbra Freeman |
According to neighbors, Shelbra Freeman was trying to alert the dog’s owner that the pit bull had gotten loose, when the dog turned on her. Neighbor Erica Sykes heard the dog barking and came outside to find Freeman near her yard.
"(Freeman) was just laying here screaming for help and she had blood running everywhere. So, I just wrapped her arm up with a towel and squeezed it real tight and just tried to help her breathe and calm down because she was still screaming," said Sykes. "All I was worried about was just helping her. I mean, it was shocking."
Another neighbor said using the towel to stop the blood may have saved Freeman’s life. She asked not to be identified.
"I ran over there. She was sitting up with her ear lobe chewed off and blood all over her arms and, I mean, it was just horrible," said the neighbor, who’s known Freeman for 50 years.
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| The pit bull's owner's house |
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| Neighbor Erica Sykes rushed to her aid |
"I'm scared it would kill my little grandbabies or some other little children around here. We don’t want that to happen," said the neighbor. "No dog like that needs to be out in this neighborhood with these children out."
Sharon Grubbs, Freeman’s daughter, told News 4’s Mandy Gaither that during the attack her mother “kept crying and said nobody’s coming and she just prayed, ‘God, please help me.’" That’s when Grubbs was told Sykes came to help.
In a statement to News 4, Grubbs said, “We’re asking for prayers and for the family that owns the dog they’re in our prayers, too. We don’t have any hard feelings.”
Chad McBride with the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office said the dog is being quarantined for 10 days at the Anderson County Animal Shelter. Its owner, David Milner, has been cited for no proof of rabies and dog running at large, according to McBride.
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| Besides the bite dog, the owner has numerous other pit bulls chained on his property |
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| An un-neutered male pit chained in owner's yard |
(WYFF - June 3, 2011)
