SAN ANTONIO – An 81-year-old Texas man was killed and three others were injured after being attacked by dogs in a San Antonio neighborhood on Friday, authorities said.
The owner of the dogs, Christian Alexander Moreno, 31, of San Antonio, was arrested and is facing felony charges of attack by a dangerous dog causing death, and injury to an elderly person, the San Antonio Police Department said in a Facebook post.
Update 6:04 p.m. EST Feb. 25: The Bexar County Medical Examiner identified the man who was killed as Ramon Najera, KSAT-TV reported.
Najera’s 74-year-old wife had critical injuries but was released from the hospital on Saturday, according to the television station. The fire captain and the other person injured sustained non-life-threatening injuries, officials said.
Original report: First responders were called at about 2 p.m. CST, the San Antonio Express-News reported. Firefighters arriving at the scene saw an 81-year-man being dragged by an American Staffordshire Terrier, and the man was “completely bloody before (firefighters) even got out of the truck,” San Antonio Fire Department Chief Charles Hood said.
The firefighters had to repel the dogs with pickaxes and poles to reach the man, the Express-News reported.
“This is not something normal for us,” Hood told reporters, according to KSAT-TV. “We usually don’t show up and have to defend patients from animals or ourselves.”
An emergency medical services captain attempting to intervene was bitten in the leg by one of the dogs, police said. According to a news release, a relative of the couple also suffered a dog bite on their hand, the newspaper reported.
According to police, the 81-year-old man and a 74-year-old woman were visiting some friends when two dogs escaped from the yard next door and attacked the couple.
The victims were taken to an area hospital, where the 81-year-old man died from his injuries, police said. The 74-year-old woman was in critical condition, according to KENS-TV.
The two dogs involved in the attack and another dog from the same residence, which was also unrestrained were taken in by City of San Antonio Animal Care Services officials. The dogs were scheduled to be euthanized, according to the television station.
It is not the first time animal services officials have been called to the residence for reports of dog bites, city officials said.
ACS Director Shannon Sims told KENS that the animals were impounded in 2021 for a “mild bite.” City officials said that at least two of the dogs were involved in “confirmed bite cases,” but the victims declined to file a “dangerous dog designation,” the Express-News reported.
“No one expects to go out and fight dogs in the way they did today,” Hood told reporters. “It was a horrific scene, horrific for the people who had to experience it and for the firefighters who were part of the rescue who had to save themselves and these people attacked today.”
