robin brown, and Esteban Parra

WIL

WILMINGTON – Police shot and killed a dog – described as a pit bull – in Wilmington about 5 p.m. Monday after it attacked a woman and a 12-year-old girl, authorities said.

The woman, 39, was taken to Christiana Hospital in serious condition with dog bites to one upper arm, New Castle County Paramedic Cpl. Abigail E. Haas said. No information was available about the child.

The dog is scheduled to be tested soon for rabies, according to state officials. Test results should be available Wednesday.

Police are continuing to investigate the attack, Sgt. Andrea Janvier said Tuesday morning, saying she was awaiting more information on the victims.

Police were called at 4:53 p.m. to 10th and Bennett streets after reports of "a loose pit bull actively attacking people," said Janvier, spokeswoman for Wilmington police.

Aaron Reddick, 27, of Van Buren Street, said he was driving by and pulled over when he saw the dog "lock on the woman's arm and start shaking her."

A man was hitting the dog's body with a golf club, he said, "but that only made him madder.... He was going crazy. That dog was very aggressive."

Reddick said he did exactly what he saw in a YouTube video about how to get a dog to stop attacking somebody:

"I pushed everybody out of the way and took off my belt, wrapped it under the dog's throat and lifted up hard to cut off his air supply." The video said that would cause "a gag reflex, like they're going to throw up," he said.

"It really did work," he said. The dog let go of the woman's arm and other people went to help her, he said.

Reddick stayed with the dog and told another man to get a towel and twist it, run it under the dog's neck and pull up to help keep pressure on its throat, he said. They also used the shaft of the golf club across the top of the dog's head, pressing down, he said.

At one point, Reddick said, the dog "tried to bite my forearm so I lifted him up from under the neck and slammed him to the ground and put my knee on his back."

Although he focused mostly on the dog, Reddick said, he did see the victim's arm.

"It was mangled," he said. "There was a lot of blood."

When city police arrived, they intervened with those holding down the dog and – fearing for their safety as that of other people in the area – shot and killed the dog, Janvier said.

The corner were the attack occurred is about a block from Kirkwood Park, where a statue of Wilmington native Clifford Brown is visible from the intersection.

Several people stood or sat on stoops Tuesday morning along the 900 block of Bennett Street. Some said they didn't know about the pit bull attack, while others said they had nothing to say about it.

"You know more than we do," said a man standing near a barbershop.

People inside the businesses also had little to say.

The block cleared up of people about 10:45 a.m. when a police car drove northbound on the southbound-only street.

The dog is believed to have been a pit bull or pit bull mix, said Kevin Usilton, executive director of The First State Animal Center and SPCA, which handles dog control statewide.

The agency has no information about the dog's owner or veterinary records, Usilton said.

The dog's remains – collected at the scene by animal control officers – are to be turned over to the state Division of Public Health for testing to determine whether the dog had rabies, he said.

The attack comes nine days after a pit bull was shot and killed by Newark police after the dog attacked 8-year-old Emily Ruckle at her home in the city.

She is at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, where doctors reattached her right arm. Rescuers credited her sister Megan, 15, with saving Emily's life by calling 911 and applying pressure to her arm to keep her from bleeding to death, her family said.

In May, 4-year-old Kasii Haith was killed by pit bulls at the home of a family friend west of Felton.

Last year, 686 dog bite cases were reported in New Castle County, 325 in Sussex County and 260 in Kent County, according to Delaware Animal Care and Control statistics.

Contact Esteban Parra at (302) 324-2299, eparra@delawareonline.com or Twitter @eparra3.

Contact robin brown at (302) 324-2856 or rbrown@delawareonline.com. Find her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter @rbrowndelaware.