GROSSE POINTE FARMS, Mich. – A 64-year-old woman suffered terrifying injuries when a pit bull sitting in the driveway of a Grosse Pointe Farms home attacked her.
"There's a hunk of flesh missing. It looks like a mauling. One of the officers described it as, 'It looked like the Walking Dead,'" said Lt. Rich Rosati.
The pit bull clamped down on the woman's leg before ripping away a significant amount of muscle.
"You can see the tendons in the leg and you can see the bone, clearly, with meat hanging down from it," said Rosati.
The attack went on for at least a minute before the dog released.
"The way she described it was, 'Stop puppy. Stop biting me.' I guess she was trying to kick at it," said Rosati.
The woman was able to cross the street and got a neighbor to call police. She was rushed to the hospital as police cornered the dog at gunpoint.
"If she had fallen down we fear that she might have died. If this was a child we fear that same thing could have happened," said Rosati.
Officers called the dog's owner, who wasn't home at the time of the attack.
"The dog went from vicious to, 'My owners are home,' and he flipped over on his back. They patted his belly. He was back to being a pet," said Rosati.
The owner has been charged with harboring a vicious animal and allowing the dog to run loose. The owner tells police the dog, named Oreo, had been left inside the garage and believes someone tried breaking in, letting the dog out.
The dog also was unlicensed.
It's not illegal to have a pit bull in Grosse Pointe Farms, but it is in the neighboring cities of Grosse Pointe and in Grosse Pointe Woods.
The dog likely will not return back to this community and is at a clinic being monitored.