JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A man in his 50s was critically injured Friday when he was attacked by four large, vicious dogs, according to a police report from the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.
Police said 56-year-old Charles Washington was walking along Pacetti Street in Jacksonville's Eastside around 8 p.m. Friday when he was attacked.
Washington was taken to UF Health with life-threatening injuries, police said. He remained in critical condition Tuesday, according to hospital officials.
"He was just lying on the ground and you could see the bite marks of how the dogs had attacked him, and, I mean, I thought he had passed away. I really did," said Atlas Rankin, who called 911 after the attack. "It was sad, really sad."
Investigators have identified the owner of the dogs, but they have not been able to find the person. It's unknown if the owner will face any charges, but a local attorney not connected to the case said the owner could be sued by the victim, which could affect the dog owner's homeowner's insurance.
Attorney Rhonda Peoples-Waters said if a dog that has previously been declared dangerous attacks or bites a person or a domestic animal without being provoked, the owner is guilty of a first-degree misdemeanor. But it's unclear if that law would apply in this case.
It is also unclear what will happen to the dogs responsible for the attack.
A woman who witnessed the attack said she heard Washington yelling, "Get these dogs off of me, get these dogs off of me," over and over. The woman said she tried to throw toys at the dogs to distract them, but they kept biting the victim. The woman contacted her pastor, who called police.
The woman said she often feared for her children's lives and the lives of her neighbors because of the dogs. The woman told police that she walks around the neighborhood with a bat because she feels like a prisoner in her own home. She also said her children cannot go outside because of the vicious dogs.
Another witness told police that the dogs frequently scare children who walk to school. She said the dogs have attempted to attack her and her family members.
"I'm just glad it wasn't one of the kids," Rankin said. "I hate to see that somebody got hurt, but any one of those kids could've gotten hurt."
After the attack, the dogs were found in the front yard of 1121 Pacetti St., according to investigators. The dogs were found contained in a fenced area, but the entry gate leading to the fence was open. Police said on Friday that the dogs escaped from a poorly constructed chain-link fence.
One woman told police that she called animal control repeatedly because the dogs escaped the fenced area repeatedly.
The dogs were taken to Animal Care and Protective Services, where their health and physical states were being evaluated. A source from ACPS told News4Jax that one of the dogs was a pit bull, but the breeds of the other dogs had not been determined.