Fort Bragg PD Releases Video Footage of Brutal Dog Attack that Injured Two Women and One Dog
[Footage provided by the Fort Bragg Police Department]
Two Fort Bragg women were severely injured when two pit bulls attacked them on April 22, 2023. They both required emergency medical care.
One woman had three partially severed fingers and had to be flown to an out-of-the-area hospital, one woman had a severe bite to her face, while a third dog that attempted to stop the attack was mauled and is still under a vet’s care. The two aggressive dogs were euthanized.
Body camera footage from the pit bull attack provides a glimpse of the brutality wrought by the animals that day. (See above)
For full disclosure, in the process of requesting this body camera footage from the Fort Bragg Police Department (FBPD), we agreed that any footage of the injured women not be included so as not to re-traumatize them.
The thirty-second video clip begins as FBPD Officer Colin McHugh approaches an accessory dwelling unit in the backyard of a Fort Bragg home with his firearm at the ready.
A woman, who suffered severe injuries with three fingers, can be heard off camera directing officers.
Chief Cervenka told us officers found her sitting on a large container she had climbed on top of for safety. She was in a state of shock and told officers that the dogs had never been violent before.
Upon the officer’s entrance, the camera captures two large pit bulls covered in blood and tearing at a third lying between the aggressors. The dogs are so caught up in the process of attacking the third they barely take notice of the officer. Rather than attempt to intervene at that time, the officer closes the door and turns to provide care to the injured woman.
The woman with the mangled fingers would later be flown to an out-of-town hospital where doctors were able to reattach them. The other victim had managed to flee the backyard and was found by officers bleeding from her forearm with a bite wound on her face.
The third dog being attacked had reportedly attempted to protect the women from the violent pair. This resulted in the pair turning on one of their own, which is the attack depicted in the video.
The two aggressor dogs were eventually taken into custody by officers and euthanized. No charges were pressed against the owner, the brother of one of the women attacked by the dogs. The third dog is receiving veterinary care.
In a press release, Chief Cervenka praised the actions of his officer that day, “The courage shown by the first responding officer is commendable. Coming into a chaotic scene with no information, two severely wounded people, while facing very large, very aggressive dogs is challenging to say the least. Officer McHugh, without hesitation, put the life and safety of a community member over his own.”
Anyone with information on this incident is encouraged to contact FBPD’s community service officer at (707) 961-2800 ext. 128.
Earlier: ‘A Fairly Horrific Scene’: Three Pit Bulls Attack Two Fort Bragg Women Causing Severe Injury
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He should have shot all 3 dogs!
Trolls are loathsome.
I think any reasonable person would agree that shutting the door to let a dog get mauled doesn’t make sense. Shoot the attacking dogs!
100%
Looks like he thought about it. Maybe even wanted to. But then, liability..
Pit bulls even more so.
Pit bulls as pets?
From the story: “She …told officers that the dogs had never been violent before.”
My personal opinion is every pit that comes into a shelter should be euthanized.
That said, the officer handled it correctly and would have been criticized had he shot the dogs summarily. I’m sure he would have shot them if it was necessary to save the women. Or if they’d charged him while he was shutting the door.
Wow just wow.
That’s kind of an extreme stance, but I’d have to say I agree.
I have friends who own pits and I will never trust any of them, even the friendly ones
And you might just be the same person commenting over and over under different name
One name. Never changed it once in the probly 4 years I’ve been commenting. Paranoid much?
I checked for fun. Just over four years.
Thanks. Was wondering how close my guesstimate was. Have a great day Kym
I dont even know where to begin with this comment. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but Id like you to know that you are just wrong about this breed. Should every human be killed just because there are horrible people that do horrible things? Sounds stupid doesnt it?
Gypsy, I think the evidence backs me up on pit bulls as family pets being an unsuitable risk. These are only the fatal encounters so it wouldn’t include the thousands who were maimed for life, like the Ft. Bragg women or the one from Myers Flat who lost a leg.
“Pit bulls, or pit bull terriers, have a reputation for being an aggressive dog breed. This is thanks in large part to their extensive use for dogfighting. Statistics back this reputation up.
During the 13 years between 2005 and 2017, pit bull attacks were responsible for 284 fatalities. This accounted for 65.6 percent of the total number of dog attacks that caused a fatality during this period.
Over these 13 years, pit bulls accounted for an increasing number of attacks: 58 percent of dog bite-related fatalities between 2005 and 2010, and 71 percent of them between 2011 and 2017.
According to these statistics, pit bulls were responsible for most of the fatal dog attacks. The next-most dangerous breed, the Rottweiler, was responsible for 10.4 percent of them. This makes pit bulls more than 6 times more dangerous than the second-most dangerous breed.
The true dangers of pit bulls is likely even higher. Pit bulls only comprise around 6.5 percent of the dog population in the U.S.”
The breed became popular among people who used your same irrational “thinking”. If children are forced to become soldiers by psycho terrorist /messed up government etc does that mean they are forever violent as is everyone with same face shape and their children too is also. Duh, of course not. That’s the ignorance that led dog fighters to choose pittbulls in the first place. They are a sensitive, thin skinned breed more therefore likely to avoid fights.
Balderdash. Every single word.
Yes.
“every pit that comes into a shelter should be euthanized” that is complete bullshit! Not all pit bulls are like that!! Those are dog are people inside…they just can’t speak! How dare you say such a thing!!😡
Just the two attackers, save the good dog.
Agreed. Save the good dog.
just shut the door and let an animal get torn to pieces . Wow. What was he thinking? Why not put them down right then ?
If he had not rescued the women first, he himself might have been attacked and unable to save them. Also, the wounded dog sacrificed itself to save the women.
Maybe because his first priority was protecting the women?
Yes terrible to watch and no fun for him and he had humans to attend to and although the roan sounded relatively ok we don’t know how bloody nor injured she and other woman were nor if office just arrived on scene and actually we know he’d just arrived as he was asking if other people were inside with dogs.
The officer helped the humans first and the wounded “hero” dog will survive. The two aggressive dogs were “put to sleep”.
That’s probably the best possible outcome. 🙁
I think you might be right. Thank god the dog being attacked will survive.
And will have less memory of it all than the officer or women who it will relive it many times likely.
Best dog I ever had was a pit bull.
A dog I’ll never own again is a pit bull.
I feel the same way about American Bulldogs.
Again useless input.,
Then stop making them.
That’s not specific enough to be informative. Just a cute slogan. Eye roll.
Calculated rationalization to dismiss can not make pit bull attacks invisible. They happen- to children, women, old people who are total strangers just walking down the street. I too had the same experience without the best dog part. Had to watch her like a hawk lest she killed another cat. For fourteen years. Never again for me either.
Sorry but I didn’t see any heroic or any thing above normal from the cop. But the poor bad ass dog who tried to protect the lady is the true hero. If it wasn’t for that dog she probably would have been malled way worse!!!
I for good reason don’t trust cops nor their PR, particularly in Humboldt and in this case though so sad to see the dog being brutalized the cop did the best right thing and some how managed not to shot the innocent dog and that could have easily happened just accidentally so good cop for handling it all apparently so well.
How about state wide dog laws with clear rules and stiff penalties for those folks who think the laws don’t apply to them.
California doesn’t do stiff penalties very well.
Mandatory training and passing a test like good canine citizen would be good .,
It’s not against the law to own a pitbull and they were at home when this happened so what specific dog laws are you referring to?
The woman was house sitting her brothers dogs. Shed fone it before without incident. What laws were broken? Possibly the 2 others she brought with were strangers to the dogs? Who knows why they attacked. The owner wasnt even home. What laws were broken?
Pepper spray then shut the door
When we were little, we rode our Pit around like a horse. Six kids, and no bites ever! Try to hurt one of my sisters, you could loose an arm! People make pits the way they are, and I can tell you there are many people that shouldn’t have dogs, or kids. This is one of those cases, I know from being local! Cops are at this place all the time, tweekshack.
Officers cannot discharge their weapons randomly to shoot dogs. Get real.
Aside from “tweekshack” good point that too many here assume no violence etc against the dogs. “They were never violent before” is so little info as to be useless until/unless investigated. Really should not have been part of article as shows a bias.
Utter nonsense. Of course it was relevant to everything.
Seeing this bothered me way more than I anticipated or I wouldn’t have clicked. Wow. The dogs look so vicious when they’re in the mood for blood.
A good chance they were males and not fixed. And then you have the pack mentality.
Correct. Most likely not neutered or spayed, and they most likely have displayed aggressive behavior before, either that the owners didn’t recognize as aggression (he’s just playing!) or didn’t take seriously because it happened to someone else (just the neighbor’s dog, it shouldn’t have been on our property!)
I would have shot BOTH dogs right then !!!
We’d like to think we are superhuman but the cop really did do the best right thing though so terrible to see even for us safe and away from the situation. Worse to see first hand no doubt. It’s amazing officer was able to spare the innocent dog in all the chaos and stress including not freaking out and shooting so randomly at attacking dogs that innocent dog could have been inadvertently shot.
WTF
“I need my phone out of there” wow concern for officer nor dog being ripped to death? Nope just needs her phone outta there. Ah, ok. Odd attitude.
Title biased against pittbulls is irresponsible reporting and not “journalism “
When a mob of golden retrievers attack people taking care of them to the level they need to be hospitalized, it certainly will be front page news. The reason it’s not is that it doesn’t happen. Could happen. Might happen. But hasn’t in anyone’s knowledge here. Get over your irritation at being called out for what actually has happened being reported.
Nope. When it was a german shepard last week that attacked and hospitalized an elderly man, Kym did not title it “german shepard attack” just dog attack. And most assumed it was a pit.
Actually the headline says nothing about breed. The title to the YouTube video says pitbull.
And for what it’s worth this story was written by Lafever, not Kym
No it won’t. It hasn’t. I know of 2 goldens that went beserk and bit children for no good reason and drew blood and the dogs were quickly whisked off to be adopted to someone else. Not a public word was spoken.
I agree that people should NOT own a pit bull unless they are willing to keep an eye on them and control them at all times and take the effort to train them or find someone else to take them if they can not. I do not like pit bulls personally and wouldn’t want to own one. I also think any dog from a line bred for dog fighting that shows aggression should be put down. BUT, I do like Rotts and there certainly is prejudice against almost any big dog out there other than goldens, labs and poodles. And we all know what standard poodle “service dogs” can get away with.
I’d bet if these dogs history could be known for sure there would be other instances of them showing aggression towards other dogs and towards humans. Dogs generally build up to situations like this. And the owners do not take responsibility for it.
Some Rottweiler lines in southern Ca are bred for fighting as well and it ruins that line. They are breeding crazy dogs and ruining them. People who breed crazy dogs on purpose are the same people who don’t take care that their dog doesn’t chew someone up. Those from those lines that show aggression should also be put down rather than adopted out. Those dogs give Rotts a bad name.
Dogs like dachshunds and chihuahuas were rated as the most aggressive dog breeds towards almost everything. Hello ! Bite force …
https://dogbitelaw.com/dog-bite-statistics/the-breeds-most-likely-to-kill
Hello bite force of so many large dogs is same or greater: German Shepards, nazi’s used Dobermans .. “The most horrifying example of the lack of breed predictability is the October 2000 death of a 6-week-old baby, which was killed by her family’s Pomeranian dog. The average weight of a Pomeranian is about 4 pounds, and they are not thought of as a dangerous breed. Note, however, that they were bred to be watchdogs! The baby’s uncle left the infant and the dog on a bed while the uncle prepared her bottle in the kitchen. Upon his return, the dog was mauling the baby, who died shortly afterwards. (“Baby Girl Killed by Family Dog,” Los Angeles Times, Monday, October 9, 2000, Home Edition, Metro Section, Page B-5.)
https://dogbitelaw.com/dog-bite-statistics/the-breeds-most-likely-to-kill
That poor one Pomeranian dragged up into every conversation for decades as if to counteract the thousands of pit bull attacks happening each year.
You win the False Equivalency trophy if you’re suggesting pit bulls are no more dangerous than Pomeranians. That’s as absurd as your previous comment that pit bulls are sensitive and more likely to avoid a fight.
Pit bulls account for about 65-70% of all fatal dog attacks but only about 7% of the dog population.
No one is saying all pit bulls are vicious killers but they’re way more likely to be vicious killers than other dogs.
Although another Fort Bragg (Fort Bragg NC.army base) Pit Bulls are ban form the base because of this very reason.
So you just let the two dogs tear the other one apart?! Disgusting!
Thank you for the warning. I’ll pass on watching the video.
I hope the good dog that tried to avert the pits’ attack survives with a full recovery. I’m sorry for the women that were blindsided by this vicious breed and hope they have a full recovery. It’s a sad situation and people defending the breed obviously haven’t experienced a fatal mauling of a loved one. Didn’t a woman barely survive and is now an amputee, after an attack in Redway not long ago? Was that breed a pit bull as well? They are bred for the purpose of dogfighting. You don’t even need google to understand they are bred to be vicious. I love my dog, I love animals. There is an old tale about a scorpion and a frog crossing a River…
A male and female pit tearing in to another pit. The owner wasn’t home. Dogs that aren’t normally in the home were also in the home. Can we try some critical thinking here and realize it’s not the dog breed that just gets all random and attacks. Dogs aren’t as dumb as you think and some dogs can be MUCH SMARTER than their owners.
We really need better public education about dogs and basic dog behavior.
This breaks my heart for the dogs and all the wrong ideas that will come from this video about pit bulls.