BALTIMORE — A pair of stray pit bulls on the loose in West Baltimore on Friday night drove a family to seek safety inside their home as they looked on in horror when they jumped 54-year-old Shelia Jones.
“‘They’re getting a lady. They’re getting a lady.’ So then I’m about to go out there, but I’m like, ‘Oh, there’s two dogs out there. I’m not going to lie. I can’t do nothing.’ So I just called the cops,” said Ron Smith who lives along the alley where Jones was attacked.
Witnesses say one of the dogs bit her about the neck, and she would later die from her wounds, but the dogs weren’t finished yet.
“As officers began to clear the area of anyone walking around for their safety, the dogs returned and started to attack another victim,” said Baltimore Police Det. Vernon Davis.
William Fortune came down North Pulaski Street and spotted them attacking his 67-year-old neighbor.
“I saw one pit bull one the lady’s arm so I kicked that one and he just jumped on me and another pit grabbed the back of my arm and I’m like, ‘Shoot this thing. Shoot this thing,’” Fortune recalled.
An officer tased one of the dogs, prompting it to release its grip on fortune, and it ran away.
Officers shot one of the dogs and it has since been euthanized, while Animal Control took control of the second one.
Now, Fortune bears the marks of the attack and is receiving medical care for his injuries, as police continue to try to track down the owners of the animals.
“Whoever was training those dogs, they were training them wrong. They were out here attacking everybody,” said the Good Samaritan, “Now I’ve got to get rabies shots every three days.”
A painful regimen that comes at his own expense after risking his life to save another.
