Woman Mauled by Pit Bull Listed in Serious Condition

A Quartz Hill woman mauled in her frontyard by a neighbor’s pit bull was in serious condition and undergoing surgery Monday night at a San Fernando Valley hospital. Surgeons were trying to save her right arm.

Kimberly Beatrice, 47, was bitten on both arms and the upper torso. She was airlifted to Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills.

“She was mauled fairly badly,” said Sgt. Craig Husbands of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department station in Lancaster. “They are attempting to save her right arm. That’s an iffy thing right now.”

Husbands said he did not know what precipitated the attack in the rural community of ranch-style homes midway between Palmdale and Lancaster.

Deputies responding to the scene at 7 p.m. found the dog mauling Beatrice. One of the deputies approached within three feet of the dog, which was described by sheriff’s authorities as a “pit bull mix,” and shot it four times with a 9-millimeter handgun.

The shots knocked the dog away, but it began to approach Beatrice again. A second deputy fired one shotgun round, killing the dog, the Sheriff’s Department said.

Husbands said the dog’s owner had not been identified.