Woman attacked by multiple dogs saved by Good Samaritans

SIERRA VISTA — A woman was transported to the hospital for injuries to her face and head after being attacked by several dogs just east of Sierra Vista on Wednesday.

The Sierra Vista Police Department, assisting the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office, and a witness to the incident confirm that the woman was walking her dog in the area of Risner Boulevard and East Central Avenue when she was attacked by no fewer than three dogs.

Area resident James Corcoran said he was drinking coffee on his porch on Central Avenue when he heard a commotion down the street.

“I hear ‘Get the dogs off her,’ so I run inside, get my gun and run down the street about 200 yards,” Corcoran said.

Gathered around the woman and her dog were several people attempting to fight off a brown boxer and white pit bull, as well as another unidentified brown dog, he said.

“There were like eight people there trying to get these dogs off her,” he said. “By the time I got there, (the dogs) were focused on the victim’s dog, which looked like a heeler.”

Corcoran said he aimed his 45-caliber handgun at the brown dog and fired, hitting the dog, which ran off along with another dog.

He then turned to the pit bull, and fired off one round into its shoulder.

“It ran off about 20 feet, then came charging back at us. Then I shot it in the chest,” he said.

The victim, he said, was suffering from lacerations to her face and head.

“She had blood everywhere,” he said, noting that, at one point, the woman momentarily lost consciousness.

Tracy Grady, public information officer for the Sierra Vista Police Department, said that the victim was transported to the Sierra Vista Regional Health Center for treatment to multiple bite wounds, and that her dog was taken by animal control officers to a local veterinarian.

Further details about the attack, and whether or not anyone was cited as a result, were unavailable from the sheriff’s office on Wednesday.

“This isn’t the first time that we’ve had problems with dogs in this area,” Corcoran said, recalling an incident about a year ago at the corner of Risner Boulevard and Schrader Road in which a couple were walking their dog when it was attacked by at least two boxers. 

“I ran back and grabbed my hammer and started swinging at the dogs,” he said. “It’s a problem out over here in this area, everybody has dogs. Most of the houses around here aren’t in the best of shape, so the so-called fences they have aren’t good.”