Man killed, woman injured in ‘vicious’ pit bull attack in Riverside County
A man was killed and a woman was severely injured after they were attacked by two pit bulls outside a home in a Riverside County neighborhood, authorities said.
Emilio Rios, 65, went for a morning stroll about 6:30 a.m. Tuesday when he was attacked by the two dogs, authorities said.
He was found by deputies, responding to a report of a dog attack, in the front yard of a home in the 70600 block of Sea Gull Drive in North Shore, an unincorporated community northeast of the Salton Sea, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.
He suffered from wounds consistent with a dog attack.
As deputies investigated the scene, they heard a woman cry for help as two pit bulls attacked her nearby.
Authorities said the lights and sirens on their patrol car scared off the dogs, which fled the area.
The woman suffered major injuries and was taken to an area hospital.
Deputies and Riverside County animal control officers searched the neighborhood for the dogs, which sheriff’s officials described as vicious. The dogs were finally found at a nearby home.
But one of the dogs was “extremely aggressive” toward animal control officers and had to be tranquilized, sheriff’s officials said.
The second dog also was tranquilized, said John Welsh, a spokesman for Riverside County Animal Services.
The dogs were in quarantine at an area shelter and will likely be euthanized, he said.
Authorities are still looking for the owners of the dogs, which were described as pit bull mixes.
The fatal dog attack, he said, should be a wake-up call to dog owners to protect their neighbors.
“A man going on a morning walk before it hits triple digits shouldn’t have to be worried about dogs coming out of nowhere,” Welsh said.
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