Two elderly adults were attacked by two dogs in San Antonio, Texas, on Friday. The attack resulted in one of the adults, an 81-year-old man, losing his life, police shared.
The San Antonio Police Department shared a statement regarding the attack, saying the man and his female companion, 74, were attacked while getting out of their car in front of a relative’s home on Friday afternoon.
The dogs, which had escaped a yard near the home the two were visiting, also injured one of the relatives and bit a first responder, who was trying to pull the dogs from the couple, police said.
Police shared that Christian Alexander Moreno, 31, was arrested in connection to the attack. He faces felony charges of attack by a dangerous dog causing death and injury to an elderly person, the press release said.
San Antonio Fire Chief Charles Hood shared that the attack was ongoing as his firefighters arrived at the scene of a reported dog bite.
“As they rounded the corner, they could see a gentleman being dragged by a dog,” Hood said. “They could see him completely bloodied before they got out of the fire truck.”
When first responders saw the attack taking place, they attempted to remove the dogs, and Hood shared that one of them had to fight off the “pit bulls with pick axes” as the dogs had turned on them.
Hood said that the woman is still hospitalized from the injuries she sustained and is listed in critical condition.
Hood also shared that one of the department’s fire captains suffered a minor leg bite.
The police shared that the dogs were American Staffordshire terriers. The San Antonio Animal Care Services says the breed is one of several classified as a pit bull.
“There were two that we know for a fact that were involved with the attack. There was a third animal from the same location that was free of restraint,” Animal Care Services Director Shannon Sims said in a statement.
The statement added that the three dogs connected to the fatal attack had been taken into the custody of Animal Care Services and have since been euthanized.
“The two dogs confirmed to have participated in the attack were euthanized Friday evening while the third was euthanized Saturday,” the statement reads.
This was not the first time the dogs had been the focus of a complaint, as Sims shared that they “were involved in a previous fight two years ago.” They were not released the last time because the victim did not file an affidavit regarding the attack.