A tragic incident unfolded late Wednesday night in north St. Louis' Walnut Park West neighborhood when a 62-year-old woman was fatally injured, and her husband seriously hurt after they were attacked by three dogs. According to FOX 2 Now, the attack took place on the 5900 block of Theodore Avenue shortly before 11:45 p.m.
Upon their arrival, St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officers discovered the woman, identified by family as Gladys Anthony, with severe injuries and her 73-year-old husband attempting to fend off the dogs using a broom. "It was three pit bulls, vicious pits. They came up under there, attacked her, she was screaming for her husband who went outside to help her, they had started biting on him," John Jenkins, Gladys Anthony's brother, told KSDK. The husband reportedly fired shots into the air to scare off the dogs, but his gun jammed, prompting him to resort to the broom.
The officers on the scene were able to distract the dogs and deploy pepper spray to ultimately cause them to flee. Two officers used pepper spray, while another helped Anthony into her home to safety. Despite rapid police response and the emergency application of tourniquets, Gladys Anthony died following emergency surgery. Her daughter Keshia Anthony and her 9-year-old grandson were present during the attack, and Keshia attempted to intervene, grabbing a shovel in a desperate effort to save her mother. "They wouldn't let go. They wouldn't stop at all," Keshia Anthony told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
James Anthony, the injured husband, was treated for multiple bite wounds and is expected to recover physically, although the emotional toll of the night is profound. "Everybody that knew her loved her. She had so many friends. It's just crazy that this happened to her like this. She didn't deserve it at all, not one bit of it. And now she got grandkids that don't have their grandmother," Keshia Anthony said in a statement reported by KSDK. The family is now left wrestling with the loss of Gladys Anthony, just days before what would have been her birthday celebration.
As for the dogs involved, there has been no official word on their capture or the circumstances leading up to their attack. Investigations into the incident are ongoing.
