They used a pipe, vehicle steering-column auto-theft device, and finally, a gun.
Shocked family members stood behind a police line on the doorstep of the victim's home located on Charles near Conant in Detroit after the gruesome attack.
"I don't know the right words for it," said the victim's son, Dwayne Clarke, who arrived home five minutes after the attack concluded. "It's not critical but it's serious and she's here. It was a crazy-ass scene... I blacked out at that point" after I arrived home.
Clarke, whose mother is in her 60s, said the dogs have been in the school located across the street from his mother's home for greater than a year.
"When you walk past the school, you can always hear them, all times of day and night," he said.
Formerly Cleveland Middle, 13322 Conant, the building is undergoing renovations.
A man sat on the tailgate of a maroon pickup in front of the former school near the entrance doors after the attack.
Two men who declined to provide their names said they witnessed the conclusion of the attack.
They watched the woman's son beat the dogs — both pit bulls, one tan or golden and the other brown and white — with a pipe. One man said the dogs were periodically attacking the good Samaritans who tried to fend the dogs off and one man was bitten.
Another man struck the dogs repeatedly with a heavy auto-theft protection device similar to the Club, witnesses said.
Two men said six people were trying to beat the dogs off when they arrived. One dog would attack and chase off the crowd while the other continued to maul the woman.
It ended when off-duty Northeastern Precinct Detroit Police Officer Tyrone Gray stopped and used a revolver to shoot the dogs. One ran several lots away and died.
Before it died, it tried to attack the victim one more time, said the two men at the scene.
Witnesses said the attack lasted anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes and the woman suffered severe injuries to her head and scalp. The attack occurred on the passenger side of her car parked on the curb by her home.
The larger of the two dogs, bleeding profusely, ran back into the school past workers and was being sought by police as of about 5:30 p.m. Witnesses said it appeared to have been shot in the head.
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| Undated photo of the victim |
"There were two pit bulls, at which time the elderly woman, after being mauled.. was lying unconscious on the ground," Gray said. "Right now she is... suffering from injuries to her head and lacerations to her arm area."
"This is the worst thing I've ever seen in my career, 15 years."
Gray chased the fleeing pit bull "into the Cleveland Middle School where the dog was familiarized with some of the people that were working there," he said. "One of her sons even attempted to strike the dogs multiple times with an iron pipe and at the time it wasn't causing any damage; they kept mauling."
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| Officer Gray |
Gray urged residents to "please, please, monitor your dogs."
At this time it's is unknown who owned the dogs, if the owner will be charged with any crimes or the official condition of the victim.
(MLive - April 16, 2013)
