"It sounded bad to me," he said of the radio call he heard Saturday afternoon. "It just wasn't the normal bite and let go."
Steurer eventually had to shoot to death a pit bull that was attacking a woman and had already bitten her young nephew.
The dog belonged to the woman's roommate but had been living in the home for only about a week after its original owner moved from the area, Steurer said.
When Steurer arrived at the home in the 0-99 block of Churchill Court, he walked in through the garage and heard the cries, which led him upstairs.
"I turned and looked. There was a medium-size brown pit bull," he said. The dog's mouth was clamped on the 41-year-old woman's forearm.
She "was covered head to toe in smeared blood," Steurer said. The dog was "actively chewing and pulling on her right arm. I was thinking, what am I going to do to get this dog off of her?"
Steurer said he grabbed the dog by its neck, which caused it to let go of the woman.
"He dug his feet in, turned his head … toward me and growled," Steurer said.
Fearing another attack, Steurer said he decided to shoot the dog.
At that point, other officers had arrived and tended to the woman, who was taken to Provena St. Joseph Hospital in Elgin and later transported to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge.
Officers also found the woman's 5-year-old nephew and 11-year-old niece in a bedroom.
Steurer said the dog first attacked the boy and then turned on the woman after she intervened. The boy's sister brought him into a bedroom, shut the door and called 911, Steurer said. The boy suffered bites to his arm and hand.
The woman remains hospitalized but is expected to recover, according to Sgt. Mike Doty. Her nephew was also hospitalized but has been released. The family could not be reached for comment Wednesday afternoon.
It's unclear what caused the dog to attack the boy.
Steurer said it was not his first incident with a pit bull. Last September, he responded to a call with a colleague — one of the same officers who responded to Saturday's attack — and encountered two pit bulls. One of the dogs charged Steurer's fellow officer, biting her heel and armpit.
In that case, Steurer said he felt "helpless" because he could not shoot the dog without injuring the officer.
The officer shot and killed the dog while it was attacking her, Steurer said.
"That also went through my mind" during Saturday's attack, he said. "The damage these things can do."
Since Saturday's attack, Steurer said he spoke with the woman's brother, who expressed his gratitude.
"It was several people coming together," Steurer said. "Not just me."
(Chicago Tribune - August 8, 2012)
