Response to attacking pit bulls earns agency's first Silver Star in 2 decades
CALIFORNIA -- Megan Robinson, a 28-year-old police officer for the Stockton Unified School District, was driving her patrol car back to the station earlier this month when she saw a bloodied man staggering in the middle of the street a few blocks west of downtown.
Robinson initially thought the man might have been in an accident or a fight. Then she saw the two loose pit bulls that had been attacking him.
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| Stockton Unified School District police Officer Megan Robinson stands last week near the spot on Oak and Baker streets where she saved a man from two attacking pit bulls. CLIFFORD OTO/The Record |
She opened the car door and the man staggered inside. The dogs circled the car. Robinson heard a woman screaming. She jumped out of the car and one of the dogs bolted at her. Robinson drew her gun and fired. The dogs turned heel, one of them wounded. Both pit bulls later would be caught and euthanized.
"I'm still in shock," Robinson said Thursday as she stood on the sidewalk at Oak and Baker streets, where the attack took place about 7:30 p.m. June 6. "I still can't believe it occurred."
Robinson since has been honored with her department's Silver Star of Valor. It's the first time the district police have issued the award in nearly 20 years, Chief Jim West said.
Two people are recovering from severe puncture and tearing wounds, West said. The near-tragedy is emblematic of a significant problem afflicting the city, said Pat Claerbout, the supervisor for Stockton's Animal Services department.
"It's a very serious, sad situation we have here," Claerbout said. "We have a lot of loose dogs on the street in Stockton, an abnormal amount of dogs, large dogs, on the loose here."
According to West, one of the victims of the Oak Street attack was the man responsible for letting loose the dogs, who then turned on him.
Also injured was a woman who was walking her poodle and was forced to stave off the pit bulls to save her own dog, West said.
In April, a 38-year-old Stockton woman was fatally mauled by a pit bull in east Stockton. In another Stockton attack by pit bulls this month, a 25-year-old woman was injured in her bedroom by two dogs she thought she knew.
The woman remains hospitalized.
Though the latter incident took place in a home, Claerbout said Stockton's problem of loose and dangerous dogs on the streets is far worse than any she has seen in 25 years working in her field in cities throughout California.
Through Monday, Claerbout said 2,262 stray dogs had been caught by Animal Control or dropped off at shelters by members of the public this calendar year.
"The information we want to get out to the public is to be extremely careful," Claerbout said. "Assume any dog could be dangerous."
Claerbout said many people in Stockton keep large dogs for protection because of the high crime rate, some of these dogs lack obedience training, breeds such as pit bulls are "prey driven," the vast majority of loose dogs have not been spayed or neutered, and sometimes dogs are able to escape from the yards of older homes because of inadequate fencing.
West said in the Oak Street attack, the dogs were on chains in the driveway of a residence. According to West, the man who was attacked was the brother of the dogs' owner. West said the brother had unchained the dogs and taken them into the yard, which has a low fence. Somehow, the dogs broke free.
The SUSD police log from the evening of the incident identified the dogs' owner as Dion Hale. The man who let the dogs loose and was attacked was identified by school-district police as Dion Hale's brother, William Marcus Hale Jr. West said Hale Jr. could face criminal charges.
Ages for the victims and for the dogs' owner were not available. A 20-year-old neighborhood resident, Phillip Ervin, said he rushed to the woman's aid when he saw her being attacked by the pit bulls.
"Personally, if a pit bull wants your poodle, give it your poodle," said Ervin, whose left hand was still bandaged a week after the attack.
[Idiotic comment of the day. What person is going to stand there and watch their beloved pet get torn to pieces? And who's to say that this pit bull, after ripping your pet to pieces, doesn't then attack you?]
It wasn't until Robinson happened upon the scene that order began to be restored. Robinson said she didn't hesitate when she saw the bleeding Hale Jr., heard the screaming woman and saw the loose, vicious dogs. She received assistance from other Stockton Unified officers as well as from Stockton police.
"You can't prepare for every scenario," said Robinson, who joined Stockton Unified's force in 2011. "The idea is to be trained to think, 'If this goes this way, what are you going to do in that situation?' "
West said Robinson "did everything exactly right."
"People's reactions fall into one of two groups," West added. "A huge number freeze. Other people run away. And a select few, in the moment, fight back in an appropriate way. She did not hesitate to do what had to be done. She did not hesitate knowing these were menacing animals circling her car.
She did not hesitate to get out of her car. That's courage, and that's duty."
(Recordnet.com - June 16, 2013)
