Shawn D. West mentioned he has met and even petted Dutch the canine when the animal was in his north Boulder neighborhood, and mentioned the animal was “normal and happy-go-lucky.”
Which is what made Sunday’s canine attack in Boulder so surprising for West and different neighbors who witnessed the canine relentlessly attack its proprietor earlier than West and officers have been in a position to stab after which shoot the animal.
Sunday morning, West overheard screaming outdoors his residence on Palo Parkway. When West ran outdoors to analyze, he discovered a person being attacked by the canine. West advised the mom of the sufferer to step away, whereas he tried to distract the animal.
“In these types of situations you either fight or get out of the way,” mentioned West. “The last thing I wanted to do was stab a dog.”
Westsaid he tried peeling the canine off the person for ten minutes. Five minutes into the incident, surrounding neighbors raced out of their homes and commenced shouting for assist, in line with West.
“The kid was being mauled … the dog was taking chunks out of him,” mentioned West. “There was a big gash on his left arm right around the elbow and multiple bite holes down to the bone.”
After quite a few makes an attempt to bodily take away the canine from the sufferer, West ran inside, retrieved two kitchen knives from his residence, and tried to subdue the canine.
“I told the kid to try to hang on and I ran inside to grab two kitchen knives; one is a 10-inch butcher knife and a 12-inch bread knife,” mentioned West. “I grab them and get back out there. I had one chance to do it, and then I lined up the butcher knife in my right hand and the bread knife in my left hand.”
West mentioned that he used excessive warning when approaching the canine with knives, ensuring that the animal was in the appropriate position in order that he wouldn’t injure the sufferer additional.
“I felt bone when I was withdrawing the knives. The dog stumbled and lunged at me. I had bloody pawprints on the back of the sweatshirt, I don’t know how I wasn’t bitten.”
Once police arrived on the scene, West advised them he had stabbed the canine twice, nevertheless it was persevering with to attack.
“When the EMT and fire department got here, three of them asked me if I was injured because of the amount of blood I had on me,” mentioned West. “I told them ‘I stabbed this dog two (expletive) times, and it’s had no effect, he is still mauling the kid. You need to shoot him now.’”
According to West, the responding officer first tried to make use of a stun gun on the animal and help the sufferer, however when the animal lunged at police, the officer pulled out a gun and fired.
“The cop started making his way back when the dog got back up and started charging us one final time,” mentioned West.
The house owners of the canine have speculated {that a} medical concern led to the canine’s all of a sudden aggressive habits, and police are nonetheless awaiting the outcomes of a necropsy.
The sufferer was taken to the hospital however is in restoration. West mentioned that though it was extremely robust to subdue the canine he did so for the sufferer’s sake.
“I hope the kid is okay, he is going to be in a lot of pain for the rest of his life, truly,” West mentioned. “It’s gonna scar but I hope he can maintain some kind of openness about what happened and allow himself to heal.”
