The woman suffered severe injuries to her left hand in the Ober Street attack.
The woman told police she was taking her yellow Labrador for a walk shortly after 7:30 p.m., when she saw the two unleashed pit bulls running aggressively toward her and her dog, from a home at 20 Summit St.
She said she started screaming for help, because, as a neighbor, she was familiar with the aggressive nature of the two dogs, "Prince" and "Luna."
The woman said she put her hand out to try to stop one pit bull from attacking her, but it latched onto her left hand and started whipping its head from side to side. The other pit bull attacked her Labrador on its right rear leg and would not let go.
It was if they were working as a team, she told the officer.
The woman's husband heard his wife scream and ran outside and started punching both dogs in the head in an effort to get them to let go of his wife and the Labrador, according to a police report of the incident. The pit bull that was latched onto the woman then let go and attacked the Lab.
At that point, the dogs' owner managed to gain control of the two pit bulls.
When officers arrived, they found the woman sitting on the ground with multiple bite wounds to her hand, which was still bleeding heavily. Officers applied direct pressure to slow the bleeding until an ambulance arrived on the scene. She also had a small bite wound to her right hand, according to the incident report.
The pit bulls' owner, Henry Hernandez — who was later arrested — was standing across the street with the dogs now on leashes. One pit bull had blood around its jaws, and blood dripping from its mouth. The other pit bull's mouth was also bloody.
Hernandez was taken into custody Wednesday night at the police station, where he had gone to discuss the future of his dogs.
He told police he had just arrived back at 20 Summit St., where he lives with Sonya Aoude, the co-owner of the dogs. When he opened the car door, he said, the unleashed dogs jumped out and ran at the victim and her Labrador.
Hernandez, who kept telling the officer the dogs wouldn't have bitten the woman if she hadn't tried to hit or kick them, was charged with "assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon (reckless), to wit two pit bulls, on a person over the age of 60."
He is being held on $25,000 bail and the dogs were seized by the animal control officer.
There were no other witnesses to the incident, according to police, but numerous neighbors came out when they heard the screaming. Many of them expressed concerns about the two pit bulls to police and indicated there have been past incidences of the dogs' aggression.
The victim was taken to Salem Hospital by ambulance, and her husband took their labrador to a veterinarian for treatment.
The police report also mentioned a March 2015 hearing document retrieved from Lynn Animal Control that named Sonya Aoude as the owner of "Prince," a white pit bull.
That hearing had determined "Prince" was a dangerous dog and ordered that he "be humanely restrained when outside the premises of the owner." The orders further instructed that he be muzzled and restrained with a chain or other tether with a minimum strength of 300 pounds and no more than 3 feet long.
Salem Animal Control Officer Donald Famico issued a letter to Aoude as well, dated Aug. 3, stating in part that a hearing would be held at a later date to determine the future of the dogs.
Hernandez has shown himself to be a mature, responsible pit bull owner by posting on Facebook how pit bull owners are discriminated against, that the news media are all against him, blah, blah, blah...
And be sure to take note of SONYA AOUDE's comments -- also blaming the victim. She's no innocent flower in all of this...
Hernandez then showed how much respect he has for women by calling a news reporter a slur. And here, ladies and gentlemen, is the pit bull owner on full display wanting us to believe he is being railroaded and that the victim is at fault. And he's so proud of himself that he took screenshots of his phone text messages and then posted them on Facebook. What a moron.
