MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. (WSVN) — A St. Petersburg Police officer is being celebrated for his bravery quick thinking when a dog attacked a baby in his neighborhood.
Dale Johnson was getting ready for work as a St. Petersburg Police officer Saturday morning when he heard screams a few houses down from his home near Sarasota.
“The most bloodcurdling screams I’ve probably ever heard,” said Johnson. “I peered over the fence again, and I could see a Rottweiler shaking what appeared to be a small child in its mouth. I put on a pair of pants, jumped the fence and proceeded to the houses where the original screaming was coming from.”
According to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, a woman was in her backyard with her puppy on a leash when the next-door neighbor’s unrestrained Rottweiler charged into her yard and attacked the puppy.
The woman was holding her 2-month-old boy, but as she got the puppy inside the dog jumped up and bit the baby’s right leg when she tried to close the door.
“The owner of the dog was unable to, you know, get the dog to relinquish his mouth from the baby’s leg and that’s when I basically tackled the Rottweiler to the ground, held him in place, began choking him and used my two fingers to stick them down the nostril of the dog’s nose,” said Johnson. “It causes an involuntary almost choking or coughing, a brief hesitation, just enough to allow me to kind of get my hands in place to give a little movement where I can get the leg removed.”
Johnson said the mother took the baby inside, where he and his wife consoled her and the 2-month-old.
The dog’s owner was able to get it back to his home.
The sheriff’s office said the baby needed stitches and was rushed to the hospital by first responders.
Johnson said he was just in the right place at the right time, and he knew just what to do.
“My brother was attacked by a German shepherd when we were small, and so I remember doing research or my parents doing research and kind of relaying that to me. I read about it as a law enforcement officer,” said Johnson.
Luckily, the officer wasn’t seriously hurt.
The dog’s owner is cooperating with animal welfare as they investigate the incident.
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