Neighbor recalls Sunday’s dog attack
Shawn D. West said he has met and even petted Dutch the dog when the animal was in his north Boulder neighborhood, and said the animal was “normal and happy-go-lucky.”
Which is what made Sunday’s dog attack in Boulder so shocking for West and other neighbors who witnessed the dog relentlessly attack its owner before West and officers were able to stab and then shoot the animal.
Sunday morning, West overheard screaming outside his residence on Palo Parkway. When West ran outside to investigate, he found a man being attacked by the dog. West told the mother of the victim to step away, while he attempted to distract the animal.
“In these types of situations you either fight or get out of the way,” said West. “The last thing I wanted to do was stab a dog.”
Westsaid he tried peeling the dog off the man for ten minutes. Five minutes into the incident, surrounding neighbors raced out of their houses and began shouting for help, according to West.
“The kid was being mauled … the dog was taking chunks out of him,” said West. “There was a big gash on his left arm right around the elbow and multiple bite holes down to the bone.”
After numerous attempts to physically remove the dog from the victim, West ran inside, retrieved two kitchen knives from his residence, and attempted to subdue the dog.
“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,” said 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 said that he used extreme caution when approaching the dog with knives, making sure that the animal was in the right position so that he wouldn’t injure the victim further.
“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 at the scene, West told them he had stabbed the dog twice, but it was continuing 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,” said 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 attempted to use a stun gun on the animal and assist the victim, but 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,” said West.
The owners of the dog have speculated that a medical issue led to the dog’s suddenly aggressive behavior, and police are still awaiting the results of a necropsy.
The victim was taken to the hospital but is in recovery. West said that although it was incredibly tough to subdue the dog he did so for the victim’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 said. “It’s gonna scar but I hope he can maintain some kind of openness about what happened and allow himself to heal.”