Witness To Rainbow Beach Pitbull Attack: Dogs Attacked Jogger "Like He Was a Piece of Steak"
By Chuck Sudo in News on Jan 3, 2012 8:40PM
The man who alerted authorities to a New Year's Day attack of a jogger by two pitbulls at Rainbow Beach has offered details of his eyewitness account of the attack to the Sun-Times. They aren't pretty.
Stanley Lee, who lives in an apartment near the beach in the South Shore neighborhood, said he first heard the barking dogs and cries for help from Joseph Finley, and grabbed a baseball bat. When Lee arrived at the scene he said he found the dogs attacking Finley “like he was a piece of steak.”
“I hurried up and put my clothes on and grabbed a bat and ran out and saw two pit bulls just going at this man,” Lee said. “So I just started beating the dogs with the bat. I was trying to beat them dogs’ heads in. It was just horrific. And these dogs weren’t like your ordinary pit bulls. It was like they were bred exactly for fighting. They just wouldn’t let the man go.”
Police shot and killed the pitbulls after they tried to attack them. Lee said he suffered no injuries trying to stop the attack, although his bat has bite marks on it. The owner of the dogs, Jimmy Johnson, was cited twice for each dog for failing to restrain them and not having city dog licenses. Johnson faces fines of more than $2,000 when he's expected in court in March. An Animal Care and Control spokesman said the dogs escaped through an open gate.
Finley remains in critical condition at Stroger Hospital after undergoing surgery for bites on his feet and legs.