The 70-year-old felt doomed.
“That dog went after me, with my dog in his mouth,” Petty says, still shaken days later. “I figured, ‘That’s it.’ He was coming straight at me, just fierce.”
Petty escaped, but only because of Little Bear, a 6-year-old Yorkie. When the pit bull charged after Petty, 6-pound Little Bear tried to protect her. But with a quick snap of its jaws, the pit bull crushed Little Bear’s throat.
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| In this 2006 photo, Lathan Sommerville, then 1, smiles with new puppy Little Bear. Earlier this month in Peoria, the 6-pound dog was killed when trying to protect Lathan's 70-year-old grandmother from an attacking pit bull. |
Her pet now buried, Petty hopes to urge the Peoria City Council to consider passing ordinances targeting pit bulls. Meantime, this week she was shocked to learn that current Peoria County ordinances could’ve prevented the killing of Little Bear. Residents recently had complained about the pit bull, for biting and for running loose. But no one wanted to sign a complaint. So, Animal Control officers couldn’t build a case against the dog and its owner.
Thus, we have yet another story about yet another pit bull going after yet another person and killing yet another dog.
“This was traumatic for me,” Petty says.
She pops up in the newspaper occasionally, but not like this. Over the years, she has been quoted here and there in her roles as a member of the Peoria Park Board and as vice-chairman of the Peoria County Democrats.
She and husband Gene live in the 3800 block of North Molleck Drive. Nearby lives her daughter Brooke Sommerville, wife of former Bradley University basketball star Marcellus Sommerville. They and their three kids (ages 7, 3 and 5 months) spend nine months of the year in France, where he plays pro ball.
For Christmas 2006, Marcellus Sommerville bought his wife a Yorkshire Terrier. For a while, family would take the pooch back and forth from France to Peoria, where they live during the off-season.
But after the last plane ride, Jackie Petty told her daughter to leave Little Bear with her.
“The trip was too hard on him,” Petty says.
The Sommervilles agreed, and the Pettys liked the extra company. Three times a day, Jackie Petty would take Little Bear on a long walk around the neighborhood.
“He was just a little round ball,” she says. “ … He was the cutest thing. Everyone in the neighborhood loved him.”
At 9:45 p.m. March 12, she took the dog for the last walk of the day. They were on their way back, about a half-block from home, when Petty heard dogs barking from behind her, several houses away.
She turned to look and saw a large dog — soon, she would realize it was a pit bull — along with a Chihuahua. Both were running in her direction, with the pit bull bearing down on her.
“Go back, go back!” she yelled. But the dogs just kept charging.
She turned to run, with Little Bear on the leash. She screamed for help.
As the pit bill came upon Petty, Little Bear tried to save her, jumping at the attacker. But the Yorkie didn’t stand a chance as the pit bull flared its teeth and bit down hard.
He grabbed Little Bear in his jaws, picking him up and shaking him side to side,” Petty says. “I was just screaming.”
Petty ran toward her house, calling for her husband. After a few steps, though, she knew she couldn’t outrun the pit bull.
“It was horrible,” she says.
But then she heard a man call for the dogs. The Pit Bull and Chihuahua turned around and ran toward a nearby house.
Soon home, Petty told her husband about the assault. Gene Petty went out and looked for Little Bear, which he found in a front yard, dropped there by the pit bull. Gene Petty picked up the little, lifeless dog.
“He carried him home,” Jackie Petty says. “The (pit bull) had broken his neck.”
Gene Petty then marched over to the house to which the dogs had fled. A man answered the door, the two dogs behind him. Gene Petty asked, “Are these your dogs?” The man said something that Gene Petty didn’t understand, then shut the door.
The Pettys called police, who also notified Peoria County Animal Protection Services. Animal Control officers questioned the Pettys, who signed a complaint about the pit bull and chihuahua. The owner of the dogs soon was cited with county ordinance violations for the attack on another dog, plus allowing two dogs to run at-large. Animal-control officers also began the process of having the pit bull declared dangerous, a designation that would mandate several requirements for the owner. The county explained all this to the owner, Sergio Molina-Garcia, 26. Plus, he was told, he’d have to pay a $475 fine if he wanted to keep the pit bull. He declined, turning the dog over to the county. It was euthanized.
“I just don’t want to keep having trouble,” he tells me.
Molina-Garcia says he did not intend for the dogs to get out. They were in his fenced-in backyard, but his brother left the gate open. When Molina-Garcia realized the dogs had bolted, the attack already had occurred.
He says he got the pit bull, Whiskey, right after its birth 1½ years ago. His relatives often brought their little children to see Whiskey.
“He played with the kids and everything,” Molina-Garcia says.
Whiskey got along with other visitors, too, he says: “He was pretty nice with people at the house.”
Well, not always. Before recently buying the house on Brookside Drive, Molina-Garcia lived on West Millman Street, in South Peoria.
“It was a bad neighborhood,” he says.
That’s why he got the pit bull, for protection. There in September, he was cited for allowing the dog to run at-large, after it chased an elderly man. But when the case went to a hearing, the victim couldn’t adequately identify the dog. Molina-Garcia was found not guilty.
In January, while still at that South Peoria residence, he had the dog inside, in a cage. A visitor approached the cage to pet the dog, which bit him. The visitor went to a hospital emergency room for puncture wounds and lacerations. The hospital notified authorities. But when animal-control officers talked to the victim, he declined to sign a complaint. Without the victim’s cooperation, it’s hard to prove such a case.
And after Molina-Garcia moved to his new place, several neighbors called the county about the pit bull running loose. If they had signed complaints, the county could’ve begun to build a case against the dog and owner.
Lauren Malmberg, director of county animal control, doesn’t understand why residents balk at following through on complaints.
“People say they don’t want to sign because they want to be a good neighbor,” she says. “But the owner isn’t being a good neighbor. The dog is running at-large.”
Jackie Petty likely won’t have further dog difficulties from the home of Molina-Garcia. He says soon he will contact the county to hand over the chihuahua, Ruby. The dog hasn’t been a problem, but barks too much, he says.
“I don’t want her anymore,” he says.
Meantime, Petty says she will push the City Council to consider ordinances to ban or restrict pit bulls. Pit bull fanciers claim the problem lies not with the breed but owners. But municipalities nationwide have adopted ordinances regarding those dogs.
Now, though, the Pettys’ thoughts remain with Little Bear, which they buried in their backyard.
Though the Sommervilles could not fly back from France at such short notice, the Pettys and some friends gathered at the grave site for a short service.
Jackie Petty said a prayer. Then she said goodbye to Little Bear: “I told him that I thought he was in dog heaven, and I hoped that someone would walk him three times a day, like I did.”
(Peoria Journal Star - Mar 23, 2013)
