Linda Henry, 54, was in critical condition at LSU Interim Hospital in New Orleans on Thursday, her boyfriend Clarence Allen said outside their home, which still bore remnants of her blood that had dried on the wooden porch.
"I don't know why they did it," the shaken Allen said of the dogs, which he raised from puppies. "We had those dogs like kids in there. They never had a fight. I don't understand it."
Allen said he had just left their home to go to a corner store to get quarters for a laundromat, when he passed Henry on Avenue A, carrying her terrier dog. She was going to their home, he said.
"When I got to the store, my little cousin called me on the phone and told me the police was down here shooting my dogs," Allen said.
He rushed home to find that Henry had been mauled. "They tore the scalp off the back of her head," he said, adding that she lost an eye and an ear in the attack.
Neighbors said her arms were intact when she was taken away in an ambulance, although the white bandages wrapped around them were soaked with blood.
"It's the worst dog bite I've ever seen in 25 years of police work," Munch said Thursday of the bites that were deep enough to expose bone.
The pit bulls, Zeus, a 4-year-old male; Brutus, a 2-year-old male; and Ghost, a 4-year-old female, apparently attacked Henry as she walked through the front door. The fourth pit bull, Big Lucy, 8, was in a back room at the time, Allen said.
 |
| Survivor: Linda Henry |
A neighbor, who identified herself only as Alma, said Thursday she was outside when she saw Henry walk in, and moments later she heard a commotion. She said she walked to the side of the house and heard Henry screaming, "Get off of me."
She yelled to her neighbor's son-in-law across Avenue A to call police. That man ran to the house and tried to get in, but one of the dogs attacked him, Alma and Munch said.
Three officers arrived and were greeted similarly, Munch said. "They could hear the woman screaming in the house," Munch said. "They saw all three dogs biting her."
An officer shot and killed one of the dogs as it charged them when they opened the door, the chief said. A second pit bull turned on the officers, too, and it was shot and wounded, causing it to retreat to an igloo-like kennel in the home, Munch said.
The officers then shot the third dog, still mauling Henry, Munch said. With the fourth dog still in the house, officers dragged Henry outside to waiting EMS technicians.
Munch said the fourth dog, Big Lucy, also attacked an officer, who in response used his Taser to try to subdue it. "That didn't work," Munch said. That dog "was on the attack and had to be shot by another officer."
"We had those dogs like kids in there. They never had a fight. I don't understand it." -- the dogs' owner, Clarence Allen
The dog that retreated to the kennel later died, Munch said, adding that one of the dogs -- apparently Ghost -- recently had puppies.
Munch said police officers escorted the ambulance to the hospital in New Orleans, to ensure it arrived quicker.
"She was in bad shape," Alma said. "Lord, it was devastating. I've never seen something like that."
Police carried the dogs' bodies out in garbage bags, one of which leaked blood onto the street in front of the house, Alma said. The puppies were carried out in a kennel, she said.
Other neighbors who declined to be identified said they worried about living near the home with pit bulls, but none of them could cite a specific instance in which the dogs were threatening to them. The home had no back yard fencing, but neighbors said the dogs weren't allowed to roam freely.
"She lived in there with the dogs, and for some reason they turned on her," a neighbor said. "They just attacked her."
(The Times-Picayune - March 15, 2013)
Earlier:
No comments:
Post a Comment