Pit bull attacks grandmother

SOUTHWEST PHILADELPHIA – November 2, 2009

Witnesses say she put herself in harm's way to protect her 10-year-old granddaughter from a pit bull.

"My grand mom was walking me home from school, she had picked me up."

10-year-old Yaasmeen Bentley says it was just after 3:00 p.m. and her grandmother was walking her home from school in the 6900 block of Linmore. Suddenly a pit bull lunged from a door and raced towards her.

"That's when he was trying to attack me and that's when my grandmother pushed me in back of her and that's when he started taking her."

Neighbor Julie King was startled when she heard a woman screaming.

Yaasmeen showed us what was left of her grandmother's jeans following the attack.

"Her whole muscle was sticking out, she got bit like 8 times on her leg," said Carzella Green, a neighbor.

Sarah Perry was rushed to the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center with serious wounds to the leg.

Police say the dog came out of a house in the 6900 block of Linmore. Paul Olone says he was house sitting the dog for a friend.

"See this latch here. He came in and the guy didn't latch it right."

Neighbors say it's the 2nd time the dog has bitten someone.

"2nd time within a year that the dog has bitten someone," said King.

Police were looking for the dog but Olone says the owner picked it up and took it to his home in Camden.

"I'm willing to help the lady anyway I can. I feel really bad."

If there's any consolation at all among neighbors, it is that the 10-year-old little girl was not injured thanks to her quick thinking grandmother who shielded her from the dog.

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