"I can't calm down. She's dying. They won't let go of her arms. … Mom? Mom?" said the voice.
On Tuesday, five pit bulls attacked a woman in her Sanford apartment, leaving her in critical condition. They also injured four other people who lived there.
Police on Thursday released audio of emergency dispatch calls. What they made clear was that the attack lasted several minutes and centered on one main victim, a woman, who could be heard screaming. Over time, her screams became more muted as she pleaded for help.
They also revealed that other people in the apartment tried to fight off the animals but without success.
I guess people don't think clearly when they're panicking. Go into the kitchen and get the butcher knives. Begin stabbing these dogs repeatedly until they are dead.
Sanford police Sgt. Nigel Price, the first on the scene, tried to get the animals off the woman, who was on the floor in a hallway. When one charged him, he opened fire, he wrote in an incident report. He ended up shooting and killing all five dogs.
The woman who was most severely injured remained in critical condition Thursday, according to Sanford police spokeswoman Bianca Gillett.
The department did not release her name or those of other people who were injured.
The dogs, she said Wednesday, lived in the two-bedroom apartment with the victims, but police had not been able to pin down who owned them.
Police released the audio of three dispatch calls.
Two were made by women inside the apartment while the attack was underway. Much of what they said was unintelligible, distorted by their screams, those of other people in the apartment and hysteria.
In the first, a woman in the background can be heard repeatedly begging for help.
"Stop it," she calls. "Get him off. … Help me. They're going to kill me. … Please, please, please help me."
Another female can be heard saying, "Can you sit up? Can you please sit up?"
A man's voice is also audible, but his words are impossible to make out. Throughout there is barking.
In a second phone call, a young woman tells a dispatcher that her mother is under attack.
"Please just send police to my location right now," she begs. "There's four dogs attacking her. … They won't let go. … I can't get them off."
The third phone call is by a dispatcher from the Seminole County communications center, which handles 911 calls for the city of Sanford. The dispatcher dials Seminole County Animal Services and is on hold for four minutes before an operator comes on the line.
"We need somebody to expedite over there," said the dispatcher who made the call. "Dogs attacking humans, multiple victims, multiple dogs. I believe one of them was shot."
(Orlando Sentinel - Jan 21, 2016)
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