82-year-old Grace Boswell, a great-great-grandmother, was home alone last Monday night with two Pit Bulls which belonged to her grandson, Ed Croce, when suddenly they jumped on her and began biting her face, arms and legs. "I had a pit bull wrapped around my neck," Boswell described. "That dog (came) off up the floor, onto the couch, and around my neck."
She isn't sure what set the dogs off. She says she reached for a pillow on the couch, which was reportedly the dog’s pillow, but she dropped it. When she turned to pick it up, the two dogs both lunged at her and began ripping her flesh.
Ms. Boswell can barely move her bandaged her arms and legs and the news video shows numerous deep puncture wounds in areas that are exposed. "(It's been) very tough," said her daughter, April Dean. "I just felt sorry that I wasn't there to help her, because I close my eyes and I can just hear her screaming for help, and nobody's there to help her. She's my life."
"If you want to survive, you're going to have to fight," 82-year-old Grace Boswell declared, struggling to speak as a breathing tube provided oxygen, “I wasn't about to give up my home and my life."
Chief Criminal Deputy Dave Pimentel with the Grays Harbor County Sheriff Department said Gloria Boswell wasn't discovered until her grandson came home with his wife after the vicious attack and found her “a bloody mess” on the floor. Groce shot one of the dogs in the head with a .22 caliber rifle while paramedics were providing emergency treatment to his grandmother, according to reports.
Groce claims "There've been no prior instances of this at all. It's like, Sissy, she would just jump up on your lap and lick your face, until we got the other puppy."
But another daughter told KING5.com that the Pit Bulls had bitten her mother before and she told her Groce to get rid of them but he did not not remove the dogs. She said no report was made and the grandson did not take Ms. Bosewell for medical care.
“The second dog is under a mandatory 10-day quarantine, the Sheriff’s Department official said, and will probably be put down. Groce has another Pit Bull, which was not involved in the attack and was shown on a long chain in the yard. The dog appeared to be in good condition. No charges have been filed, but the investigation is ongoing, Chief Deputy Dave Pimentel stated.
"She had some horrific wounds, tendons pulled out," said Deputy Pimentel, who added that in his three decades in law enforcement, he'd never seen anything like it.
"They chewed holes in her arms, clean to the bone, and her legs," according to her daughter, April Dean. Ms. Boswell is reportedly in stable condition at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle,
"I never knew they would turn like that," Dean said. "(Other people should know) just to beware. That they can do this to somebody."
(Opposing Views - May 2, 2012)
