Officers and rescue workers responded to the 1100 block of Jessie Street about 4:25 p.m. after the man who lives at the home reported the death, said Sgt. Chuck Ford of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
He did not identify the victim, but said he appears to be a male over 60 years old.
The victim was found on the ground in the backyard of the house, inside the fence line, Ford said.
He said the fence is secure, but there are spots with holes in it.
“It looks like they [the dogs] went under the fence by all accounts that we have,” Ford said.
The fence divides the backyard and a parking lot for the Franklin Arms Apartments. Witnesses tell Action News Jax and JSO investigators the victim was taking out the garbage at this dumpster behind Felton’s yard when the dogs went under this fence and dragged him back here, killing him.
In the back yard of his east side home, Lephus Felton pointed to a hole underneath his chain-link fence. That’s where police believe one or more of his dogs got out and attacked an elderly man in the adjacent parking lot.
“He had to have been antagonizing my dogs to be pulled under there. Even the police say, because he got pulled underneath. So he had to stick his hands under there, and that’s when they grabbed him, I guess,” said Felton.
The dogs were taken by Animal Care and Protective Services to be evaluated individually, Ford said. He said it’s too early to know what will happen to the dogs.
Lephus Felton owns the dogs, and he said one is a rottweiler, but the other three are mixed breeds consisting of rottweiler, German shepherd and chow chow.
Felton says he’s upset about what happened to the man. Still, he’s defiant his dogs wouldn’t attack without being provoked. “My dogs don’t mess with nobody. My dogs are trained to protect this yard. I have signs and all that ‘beware of dog’ signs all over. You know? It’s no way in the world you know my dog is vicious,” he said.
Lephus Felton said: “my dogs ain’t no vicious dogs. They’re vicious to protect this yard. That’s their job. It’s like the police have dogs to protect them. You know? That’s how my dog was trained.”
Felton said the dogs are trained and obey orders, but the problem is he wasn’t home at the time of the attack.
“I was gone for 30 minutes,” Felton said.
He said when he returned home, a woman told him his dogs killed someone in his backyard.
Felton said Samson, 5, and Kiki, 4, are the parents of the two younger dogs, Matez and Buck, both 3 years old.
He said people who live in the apartments try to agitate his dogs regularly, and it’s hard for him to believe the dogs would go under the fence to drag someone back into the yard.
He said the victim must have reached through the fence at some point before the attack.
“All his stuff was close to the gate. He was teasing my dog,” Felton said of the victim.
Neighbors we spoke to said the dogs were always aggressive.
“They lunged at me a few times, but I kind of hurried up and got away from the fence,” said Deborah Young.
Even during Felton's interview with the tv station when he was defending his dogs and blaming the victim, someone in the parking lot of the apartment complex shouted, "Those dogs are vicious, man. They're vicious dogs."
Ford said no arrests have been made, but detectives will sit down with the State Attorney’s Office to determine if any charges should be filed.
(Jacksonville.com - Aug 19, 2016)
and I felt like after 8 years of marriage, it was time to get our master bedroom in better shape.metal fence gate
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