As a pit bull mauled a woman and her granddaughter Thursday, others in the house tried to get the dog off them by stabbing it repeatedly with a large kitchen knife, Aurora police said.
But that didn’t work. So when police arrived, the responding officer shot the dog in the head through a glass door.
Police dragged the dog outside, but it wasn’t going down without a fight. Officers had to shoot it a second time.
“Someone in the home used a knife and was stabbing the dog, trying to get it off the two ladies, and it wasn’t doing anything,” Aurora police spokesman Bob Friel said. “Then the officers showed up and shot and killed it. The knife was still sticking out of the dog.”
That was part of the drama Thursday as police responded just after 1 p.m. to 4291 S. Nucla Way on an out-of-control-dog call and a house full of screaming people.
The names of the victims were not released, but a woman in her 60s who was mauled by the pit bull was in critical condition, Friel said. Another woman, believed to be in her 20s, also was hospitalized. The two were visiting the home, where children were present.
Next-door neighbor Richard Vitamvas said he was working in his yard when the two visitors arrived at the home. About five minutes later, he heard screams and a young woman rushed out of the house with a small child under one arm and a phone in her free hand.
“She had blood on her hands and was pretty incoherent,” he said. She handed him the phone, and he looked inside the house and saw another young woman fending off a dog with a serrated knife.
Vitamvas, who is a nurse, said he helped police tend to the older woman. He said she had been “bitten down to the bone” and was slipping in and out of consciousness.
Police did not say who lived at the home.
Vitamvas said the residents had moved into the house about three months ago but weren’t home at the time of the attack. He said he has heard occasional barking for about a month.
Police said no pit bull is registered to live there.
The city banned pit bulls several years ago, but residents who owned the dogs before January 2006 were allowed to keep them as long as they met several requirements.
Staff writer Simona Gallegos can be reached at 303-954-1555 or sgallegos@denverpost.com.
