Alice Richardson said she keeps wondering if there was anything else she could have done to stop the vicious dog that attacked 21-year-old Brittany Brown early Tuesday morning. Others are calling her and another Good Samaritan, William Padgett, heroes.
“I thought he was going to kill her,” said 52-year-old Richardson, who was on her way to work at Vanguard in Malvern when the attack occurred.
Brown, the mother of a 9-month-old daughter, was walking across the intersection at Ninth and Engle streets to catch a bus to work around 5:50 a.m. when the attack occurred.
According to Animal Control Officer Dave Schlott, the pit bull’s owner was walking him when he slipped out of his leash, ran toward the bus stop and attacked.
“The dog came up from behind her and grabbed her leg. It really ripped her knee apart,” Schlott said. “It knocked her to the ground and went for her throat.”
According to Schlott, Brown tried to fend off the attack, but she was no match for the vicious dog.
“She held the dog away from getting to her throat, but it bit her on the right cheek and her left upper arm as she was on the ground screaming,” Schlott said.
Richardson was driving to work when she saw Brown walking with the dog coming up behind her.
“He kind of grabbed at her and she jumped. She started running then he really went for her,” Richardson recalled.
As the dog attacked, Richardson tried to distract the dog by beeping her horn and throwing the case for her glasses. It didn’t work.
“She got up, then he knocked her down again,” Richardson recalled.
Richardson opened her car door and called to Brown to get inside. Brown managed to get inside, but the dog followed.
“He hopped in there with her,” Richardson said. “He wouldn’t let her go.”
The dog then turned his attention to Richardson, who jumped out of her car. The dog followed, biting her on the leg.
Richard Padgett was driving to work, saw the melee, stopped and tried to get the pit bull from biting Richardson by hitting it with a stick. He was also bitten.
Police arrived on the scene and corralled the dog and put him in back of a police car until Schlott arrived.
Marcella Johnson, Brown’s grandmother who lives across the street from where the attack occurred, recalled what happened.
“She was screaming and her brother heard her screams, but he thought someone was being attacked,” she said. “He didn’t know it was his sister.”
Brown, 21, who was on her way to work at the Fair Acres Geriatric Center in Middletown when the dog attacked, underwent surgery at Crozer-Chester Medical Center Tuesday afternoon. Richardson and Padgett were treated at Crozer for less serious injuries and released.
Johnson credits Richardson and Padgett with saving her granddaughter’s life.
“That’s why she’s living. He would have killed her,” Johnson said of the dog. “He bit her on the chin and took a piece out of her knee and arm. You could see the bone.”
Attempts to reach Padgett were unsuccessful.
On Wednesday, Richardson was back home tending to her bite wounds. She said she was doing better, but her thoughts were with Brown, who was still hospitalized.
“I really feel bad for her,” she said. “They have these dogs out here, they’re letting them loose in the parks and say ‘Oh, he won’t bite you,’ but you never know what they’re going to do.”
Alice Hunt, the owner of the 1-year-old red nose pit bull, opted to have the dog euthanized because of its aggressive behavior and the fact it had bitten her in the past, Schlott said. The dog was up to date on his shots, he added. Hunt did not return a call seeking comment.
(Daily Times - Sept 2, 2011)
