Across the street, along an embankment near a Walmart parking lot, he saw a pit bull — its teeth clenched around the arm of an elderly woman — throwing her around like a chew toy.
“It had to be terrifying for her,” he said.
Reyes grabbed an aluminum baseball bat, and a resident of the Treasures of Darkness Christian rehabilitation home for former drug users and gang members grabbed a golf club. They ran to the woman’s rescue.
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| Hero Jose Reyes |
The dog was believed to have lifted a latch to unlock the gate of a chain-link fence surrounding a home in the 200 block of Commonwealth Avenue, then attacked the 76-year-old woman, who was walking along the sidewalk on her way to a store.
“We heard some screaming,” Reyes said. “We thought there was a fist fight going on across the street. I happened to look (out of a window) and I saw a lady being dragged by a pit bull.
“The dog had the lady by the arm and was dragging her up and down” a 4-foot-high embankment adjacent to the shopping center parking lot, Reyes said.
He said the woman looked like she weighed about 80 pounds.
“The dog was tossing her,” he said.
A crowd of 10 to 15 people gathered to watch as the two men beat back the dog.
At one point, Reyes said, someone he believed to be related to the dog owner was tugging at the head of the pit bull to try to pull off the dog, but Reyes said it appeared only to further aggravate the dog more.
The woman, whose name wasn’t released, suffered severe puncture wounds to her side, arms and legs. She was stable at a local hospital Wednesday, according to Riverside County sheriff’s Sgt. Michael Canizales.
The adult male dog was taken to the Ramona Humane Society shelter in San Jacinto, where it was being held in quarantine for at least 10 days.
Jeff Sheppard, executive director of the society, said the dog’s owner had not yet been contacted. Canizales said the Sheriff’s Department is not seeking charges against the owner.
Sheppard said the shelter, which provides animal-control services in the area, had received no previous complaints about the dog.
Reyes, however, said neighbors had complained to animal control officials four or five times.
“The dog always gets loose,” Reyes said.
(Press-Enterprise - March 6, 2013)
