The daughter of a 74-year-old man mauled by two large dogs Tuesday morning credits the community with saving her father’s life.
Sawney Bell is hospitalized, recovering from serious injuries.
Two Cane Corsos, guard dogs at the Towing Pros and Recovery lot on the corner of Benning Road and 36th Street in northeast D.C., got loose through an unsecured gate and attacked Bell as he walked to work. The dogs bit him repeatedly, breaking his arm and leaving him with deep gashes.
His daughter, Linda Brown, credited Phil Ragland and his American bull dog Oliver for chasing the attacking dogs away from her father.
“I would like to give this man and his dog an award, because he and his dog saved my dad’s life,” Brown said.
Another neighbor, Mike Johnson grabbed a baseball bat and banged it on the ground to scare away the dogs.
“I thought maybe they were going to charge me,” he said, “but my instinct was just take one of them out if I could.”
The owners of the dogs were given two $50 citations when they returned Tuesday afternoon.
“I think the owner needs to own up to what happened, and we need to take it from there,” Brown said.
Guard dogs on the lot have gotten loose before, neighbors said.
