An East Seventh Avenue resident believes three pit bulls, two adults and a puppy, were provoked by children into charging out of the middle unit of a three-unit rowhouse on Thursday. Police say three people were hurt, and that officers killed one of the two adult dogs that were threatening people.
A pit bull's teeth punctured Michael Shutack's flesh to the bone during a Halloween night attack in Tarentum that felt like it lasted forever, he said.
Shutack, 60, returned to his East Seventh Avenue home Friday morning after spending the night at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh. He's battered, bruised and cut from head to toe, with stitches in his face from dog bite wounds.
Shutack, who works as a butcher at Golden Dawn in New Kensington, said he was trying to protect trick-or-treating children from three pit bulls, believed to be two adults and a puppy, when the adult dogs turned on him. He described them as "relentless."
"I look at it like, I've lived my life. My concern was the kids," he said. "That's the daddy in me."
Chuck Wise, who stopped by to see how Shutack was doing, said he helped get the dogs off Shutack. One of his friends, Sean Flinn, was also attacked and badly hurt.
"Once they smell that blood, you're a piece of meat to them," Wise said.
In a release issued Friday, Tarentum police said they were alerted to the dog attack around 5:42 p.m. Officers encountered three pit bulls, two of which were threatening residents.
Three people suffered bite wounds and were taken to hospitals for treatment. While none of the injuries were considered life-threatening, some of them will need "more intensive medical attention," police said.
Officers killed one of the three dogs, while a second was "safely contained." Police did not say what happened to the third dog.
Police said the owner was taken into custody and that charges are pending as an investigation continues. They did not disclose the owner's name.
At the Tarentum police station on Friday, officers would not speak with a reporter, and borough officials have not responded to questions about the release.
"Over the next few days, our department will work diligently to gather video evidence, interview witnesses and compile all necessary details to fully understand the events leading up to this incident," police said in the release.
Residents in the area of East Seventh Avenue and Ormond Street said the dogs came from the middle unit of a three-unit rowhouse at the end of East Seventh. No one was in the unit Friday; a note taped to the door said that the locks had been changed "per possession order granted by the Tarentum Magistrates office."
Brian Schuller, who said he has lived in an end unit of the building for eight months, said he's used to hearing the dogs fighting. When he heard the commotion outside Thursday night, he knew something was wrong.
"I saw a man laying on the ground with the dogs on his neck dragging him," he said. "A neighbor threw stuff at the dogs to get them off of him so he could stand up."
Schuller said borough police have been to the building two or three time previously about the dogs.
"I'm in total shock," he said. "I wish I could have helped the poor guy. But I would have been in the same situation he was."
Nancy Pfeil, Michael Shutack's sister-in-law, lives next door to him in the house where she grew up. She described their area as a friendly neighborhood where people look out for each other.
"This is the first time anything like this ever happened," she said. "This neighborhood is usually pretty quiet."
Pfeil was getting ready for trick-or-treating when, she said, everyone was told to stay inside their houses.
"I never did pass out any candy," she said. "They didn't want the dogs to attack anybody else."
While some residents said the dogs came out through an open screen door, Carrie Tometsko said she thinks they might have been provoked to charge through the door by three children running up and down the street yelling.
"I would hate to say the kids are the reason," she said.
Tometsko said she had one of the dogs, the puppy, for a short time before someone related to its owner took it from her.
"She's a sweetheart," she said of the puppy. "I wanted to fight for her and give her a good home."
Tometsko saw the adult dogs mauling Shutack from each side of his body.
"I've never seen anything like this in real life," she said. "They were ripping Mike apart."
Shutack said he had to get a rabies shot because the dogs were not vaccinated, and he will need more. He's on pain medication, with throbbing and swollen wounds, and wondering about the medical bills that will be coming.
He wants to hold the owner of the dogs responsible.
If it ever happens again, he promises to be prepared.
"I'll take the coal shovel with me," he said. "If a dog comes after me, I'll split its head open."