Woman suffers severe injuries after attack by Waukesha detective’s dog
County Sheriff’s Department detective and former Wauwatosa police officer Joseph Mensah’s dog brutally attacked a woman at his Greenfield home on March 2.
The 26-year-old victim was working in Mensah’s house as part of the moving company Paul Davis. When the 9month-old pit bull mix repeatedly attacked her, she “thought she was going to die,” a Greenfield police report said.
By the time police arrived at the scene, the victim was unable to walk as she lay in the Paul Davis moving truck with her coworkers, body camera footage obtained by the Journal Sentinel showed.
The dog was covered in the victim’s blood in Mensah’s backyard when police arrived, the report said.
Paul Davis employees were frantic and exasperated as an officer approached them, the video showed, and they described the pit bull as a “double-XL police dog.”
Mensah told police he did not witness the attack and had in fact arrived home shortly after the attack to take the dogs out.
The pit bull, named Bulldozer, was one of three “very large” dogs in Mensah’s home that were all originally in black wire dog crates. Mensah told police that Bulldozer must have broken out of his crate, the report said.
Photos of the victim’s injuries were obtained by the Journal Sentinel through an open records request. The graphic imWaukesha ages show multiple severe wounds from the dog’s teeth that cut deep into the victim’s skin. Paramedics estimated she was bit at least 10 times.
“Some of these puncture marks actually exposed fatty tissue,” the report said.
As soon as the victim was able to exit Mensah’s house and reach the front yard, the dog unlatched its jaws from her body and lost interest in attacking her, the report said.
Her coworkers, who first attempted to scare the dog off of her by making loud noises then helped her into the back of the moving truck and called police.
The victim was taken to the hospital for her severe injuries.
The victim told police that she didn’t want Mensah to get in trouble for the attack as she viewed him as a responsible dog owner. He would regularly come home and take the dogs out on walks, the report said, and had told workers that Bulldozer was “iffy” with some people.
On video, Mensah told officers that he had the dog since it was eight weeks old. Police later confirmed that the dog was up to date with its vaccinations but was not registered with the city of Greenfield.
Upon instruction from the Milwaukee Area Domestic Animal Control Commission, the dog was surrendered and later euthanized.
Mensah received two citations, one for harboring a vicious animal and another for animal licensing, the report said.
“The criminal investigation is done,” said Greenfield Police Dept. Assistant Chief Ray Radakovich. “There will be no further charges sought as there is no reason to believe this has (or had) anything to do with dog fighting or illegal breeding, or any other criminal behavior.”
As a Wauwatosa police officer, Mensah shot and killed Alvin Cole, Jay Anderson Jr. and Antonio Gonzales in his five years on the job. He was not criminally charged in any of the shootings. Mensah’s killings sparked multiple protests in 2020.