Spartanburg Public Safety officers were called to a home on South Center Street around 2:15 a.m. Wednesday where they saw three pit bulls attacking a woman.
The officers had to pull the dogs off the woman, and as they were doing so, one of the animals turned toward an officer who shot and killed it. The other two pit bulls were seized by animal control officers and are being quarantined at the Spartanburg Human Society.
The victim, identified as 44-year-old Dreamer Rice of South Center Street, was said to be profusely bleeding and unconscious as she was taken to an area hospital, the report said.
Officers said Rice was stable but suffering life-threatening injuries with severe bites to her face, arms, and abdomen.
Jamila Suber lives on South Center Street, and she and her son Michael Harris witnessed the attack.
"I'll never forget the cries that she yelled out for help," Suber said. "She pleaded with the dogs, she pleaded with us ... just for help, or just for them to stop."
Harris picked up a sword from inside the home and ran to help Rice, but he says there wasn't much he could do.
"They looked at me like they were about to come after me, so I backed up and ran back to the house, and my mother called the police," Harris said.
The dogs' owner has been identified as Ray Williams who lives at 781 South Center Street which is just outside the city limits and is a county address.
Spartanburg County Environmental Services charged Williams with three counts of failing to give his dogs rabies shots, according to the agency's director Jamie Nelson.
Even though Williams lives in the county, the attack took place within city limits, so Spartanburg Public Safety and its animal control division will handle most of the investigation.
Public Safety spokesman Cpt. Art Littlejohn while his department will help with the investigation, the county's environmental services will make charges since the dogs were housed technically in the county.
Those charges could include letting the dogs run at-large and also harboring a dangerous or vicious animal, according to Nelson.
"If I face some charges, I just have to face it. I'm just worried about the person. That means more than any kind of charges to me," said Williams.
(WSPA - Jan 9, 2013)
