A police helicopter captured a pit bull attack on a California man Wednesday. "If they would've got me down, I could've got (sic) killed," said Fresno man Hector Marroquin, who managed to call 911 while a pack of four pit bulls charged and bit him. The Fresno County Sheriff's Office's Eagle One helicopter responded before ground patrol arrived and circled over Marroquin as the pit bulls sunk their teeth into his leg. Marroquin told NBC affiliate KSEE that these pit bulls have gone after him before, but they've never bit him. "I've never called [911] other times, but it's enough," he said.

Once Marroquin fought the dogs off, they ran back to their owner's yard, and a deputy parked his patrol car in front of the fence so that they couldn't get back out, Deputy Chris Curtice with the Fresno County Sheriff's Office told KSEE. "At one point, even when the owner got there, one of the larger dogs charged the gate and tried to get out again towards us," Curtice said. The owner of the dogs was cited and fined under Fresno's "Vicious Dog Ordinance," and the dogs were turned over to Liberty Animal Control, which will decide whether to put the animals down.

— Elisha Fieldstadt