‘Sometimes you have to take action’ Lodi student fends off dog attacking woman, boy
Lodi Adult School student Cameron Cooper is being called a hero for his efforts to fight off a pit bull when it viciously attacked a woman and her 4-year-old grandson Wednesday morning.
“Everybody has been saying I’m a hero. It just makes me feel awkward because I never really thought of myself like that,” Cooper said.
Cooper was late for class that day and was pulling up to the school at the corner of Cherokee Lane and Pine Street when he noticed a group of his classmates and other bystanders gathered around the fence across the street from the school.
“I heard the screaming, and then once I saw what was happening, I was trying to see if I had anything in my trunk that I could kind of fight it off with,” he said. “I just happened to have my longboard in there, which I normally don’t have.”
After spotting the longboard in the trunk of his car, Cooper grabbed it and threw it over the fence before jumping over the fence himself.
“I ran over there and I wasn’t expecting to see so much blood, so I kind of freaked out as soon as I got there,” he said. “My longboard had like a pointed tip so I kind of stabbed the dog right in the side.”
The dog backed off the woman and her grandson and briefly turned its attention to Cooper before attempting to go back for the woman and child.
“When he stepped back I was like ‘Uh-oh, now he’s going to come after me,’ so I was pretty scared, but he ended up trying to go back for the woman and her grandson,” Cooper said.
Before the dog was able to attack the pair again, the police showed up and used a Taser on the dog.
“He must have been pretty close, but I didn’t see him. I just heard him yell look out and then that’s when he came with the Taser and then tased the dog,” Cooper said. “He had tased the dog once and then it started jumping after the officer and then he tased him again and that’s when it started to run away.”
Cooper’s schoolmate Nicole Owens was so proud of what he did that she felt he should be recognized for his actions.
“He ran past me with a skateboard,” she said. “I told him to be careful. He ran all the way over there and started hitting the dog” she said. “I thought I was cool with the situation but I was feeling for the baby. I went home that night, and I couldn’t stop thinking about what I could’ve done. I couldn’t believe that a young boy ran all the way over there with just a skateboard because I don’t know if I could’ve done that. I think that was awesome because he did something I couldn’t do.”
Owens said that Cooper’s response was heroic and she bought him balloons and cake to thank him for his actions.
“I just felt like he kind of deserves some kind of recognition,” she said.
After police arrived on the scene, Cooper said he felt the woman and grandson were in good hands and headed to class. The police later stopped by his class to update him on the condition of the child and the woman. Both were taken to UC Davis Medical Center for medical attention. The child received stitches for his wounds.
Despite the danger he faced on Wednesday, Cooper said he wouldn’t hesitate to make the same decision again.
“Sometimes you have to be the one who takes action, so I decided that would be me that day,” he said.
Cooper, who is studying to be a medical assistant, said he has a passion for helping others. Despite being afraid, he said he got involved because he felt like it was something he had to do.
“I couldn’t have stood there and watched it,” he said. “When I got there, the cops weren’t on the scene yet so as far as I knew it could’ve been attacking her for minutes before the cops got there, and who knows what could’ve happened in that time? I felt safe with my long board. I felt like I could fight it off OK. I was really scared, I’m not going to lie. But I felt like I would be OK and that someone had to help her, especially since I saw the kid there too and he was kind of trapped in the shopping cart with his legs dangling. She was trying her absolute hardest to get the dog off of her grandson.”
Despite his actions, Cooper feels like the police officers were the real heroes.
“I don’t know what would have happened if the officer wasn’t behind me,” he said.
Until Wednesday’s incident, Cooper said he had never thought anything of the several stray dogs he sees in the area on a regular basis.
“I think a lot of people don’t really see the potential danger that there could be,” he said. “Not all stray dogs attack people, but as we can see, some of them will and they could really hurt people like the dog did to that woman and her grandson.”
“Everybody has been saying I’m a hero. It just makes me feel awkward because I never really thought of myself like that.” CAMERON COOPER LODI ADULT SCHOOL STUDENT