PASCO COUNTY, Fla. — The video is hard to watch and hear. In Pasco County, just before 7 a.m. Thursday, four dogs attacked two people before a deputy shot one of the animals, ending the attack.
The dog’s owner says that shooting wasn’t necessary.
But the deputy was wearing a body camera, and that’s given the public a chance to see what happened and decide for themselves.
The dogs’ owner, Keith Humphrey, thinks deputies didn’t have to shoot his pet pit bull Nalla.
“My kids were crying, you know? That’s their dogs,” said Humphrey. “They’ve had them for three years. And they grew up with my kids.”
In the video, you can see Cpl. Jason Murphy as he’s confronted by the animals. You can see 77-year-old Hank Bruneau is bleeding nearby.
“Are you OK, sir? You got it on the hands and legs?” Murphy can be heard asking Bruneau.
Deputies say Humphrey’s dogs got loose in the Crews Lake Park neighborhood of Spring Hill, apparently after crawling through an opening in the fence.
“We just moved here and secured most of it,” said Humphrey. “And I didn’t see the hole over where the bushes were grown over it. And they just went under it.”
Deputies say the dogs, two adults and two puppies, also attacked a 15-year-old neighbor on his way to school. The body-cam video also shows the deputy photographing the teen’s injuries.
Bruneau’s daughter, Kim Best, says her dad had just gone out to grab the newspaper, “Like he does every morning and the dogs came out of nowhere,” she said. “He’s got over 40 stitches in his hand and both legs.”
“I would just tell the neighbor I’m sorry. It’s an accident,” said Humphrey. “Everything. It could’ve been somebody else, but I’m just glad the kid is OK.”
A woman at the house the dogs escaped from said the animals sleep in the same room as her 1-year-old child.
The family says they just moved into the house about 10 days ago. Humphrey claims his family had 30 people over during Easter weekend, and the dogs didn’t bother anyone. He thinks the deputy overreacted.
“I mean, he had no bite marks, he had nothing,” said Humphrey. “So, that gives him no right to shoot the dog.”
The body cam video gives people a chance to judge for themselves.
The dog shot by Murphy had to be euthanized. The other adult dog was deemed to be vicious and is being kept by Pasco animal control. The two puppies were allowed to stay with Humphrey.
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An elderly man and a teenage boy were injured Thursday morning in a series of dog attacks, the Pasco County Sheriff's Office said.
Deputies initially responded around 6:53 a.m. Thursday to a report of five dogs – three adult bulldogs and two puppies – attacking a 15-year-old boy and an elderly man at two different places in Shady Hills. The man has serious injuries, the sheriff’s office said.
One of the dogs bit the boy on the leg either while he walked to school or was waiting for the bus, the sheriff’s office said. The boy’s injuries are considered minor.
A Pasco County deputy shot one of the dogs after it tried to attack him, the sheriff's office said. Authorities euthanized the dog that was shot at the request of the owner, but the deputy was not injured.
Two of the other dogs involved in the attack are in custody of Pasco County Animal Services. The two puppies at the scene were not involved in the attack, according to the sheriff's office. The two puppies were returned to their owner.
Animal Control is on the scene to take control of the dogs. All five dogs belonged to the same owners.
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