Neighbors try to stop dog attack

WATERLOO (AP) ? Residents of a Waterloo neighborhood said they tried multiple times Tuesday to stop three dogs that attacked a woman and teenage boy, including using a drain pipe and BB gun.

The attack injured a woman who was on a morning walk and a 14-year-old boy headed to school, the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reported. Neighbors who sprang into action said the tools barely stopped the animals.

The woman and boy were taken to a hospital. Their names and conditions have not been released.

Police fatally shot one of the dogs, an adult pit bull. Waterloo Animal Control officers later captured the other two dogs, an 8-month-old Boston Terrier mix and a 1-year-old pit bull.

Eugene Love, who said he owned the surviving dogs, said they escaped from a backyard fence. He said they had never been a problem. He said he believed the other dog was a stray that he had previously seen in the area.

It wasn?t immediately clear if any charges would be filed in the case. Waterloo police didn?t immediately return messages Tuesday from The Associated Press.

Witnesses said the dogs first chased the boy, who escaped only after his friend, KaRon Bennett, grabbed a downspout to hit the dogs.

?I was scared,? said Bennett, who also is 14. ?I hit them like ?boom, boom.??

The boys got away, but the dogs later attacked the woman.

?The dogs ran up to her, and she was trying to pet them and be nice to them, and all of the sudden they start jumping on her,? said Arlandis Lewis, who was nearby.

Neighbors tried stopping the dogs? attack on the woman by shooting a BB gun at one dog and honking a car horn. The woman fell to the ground during the attack and received serious injuries to her face, witnesses said.