"I was going to take her to school. I (had) just come through my house. Not even five seconds, I see the dog come from the next house flying to us, and tried to bite my daughter," Safwat Shnouda said, before he was overwhelmed with emotion. "I tried to protect my daughter."
Shnouda's daughter, Despina, who he said is 5-years-old, had bandages on her head and arm but didn't appear to have trouble walking.
While at the hospital, she had to get four shots as well as stitches, and she'll be going back to the hospital for a check-up next week, her father said.
The attack, which happened on West 20th Street between Kennedy Boulevard and Avenue C at around 8:24 a.m., came to an end after Despina's father and three other rescuers pulled the pit bull off of her, and a police officer fired on the animal, killing it.
Asked what he'd say to the dog's owner, who couldn't immediately be reached at his home, Shnouda said: "Why did you leave (the gate) open?"
As for whether he felt the pit bull's owner should be criminally charged, he said he was leaving that up to the police. "That's police work, not me," he said.
Shnouda also said he wants to thank the officer who shot the pit bull and the people who helped him pull the dog off his daughter.
"Thanks very much...and for the people who helped me, thanks very much guys," he said.
Avery Jefferson, 25, a neighbor, told The Jersey Journal that when he and others finally got the dog off the girl, it started attacking its owner. He added that the dog's owner told the police to "do something" when they arrived, and then ran into the home before an officer fired on the animal.
The owner, who was also injured in the incident, was taken to the hospital.
His condition couldn't be immediately obtained, but police have said all injuries stemming from the attack are "minor."
(NJ.com - Oct 9, 2015)
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