SOUTHWEST DETROIT – Detroit police are investigating a tragedy at a vacant building after a man was mauled to death by dogs he fed daily.
This mauling occurred Tuesday (April 4) on Fort Street near Junction Street in Southwest Detroit.
The speculation was that the man only tried to feed these dogs when the worst happened.
“They look like junkyard dogs, all three,” said Gordon Compton. “They’re scared, but when they’re together, that’s when they’re dangerous.”
For years Gordon Compton says dogs have terrorized their neighborhood near Junction Avenue and West Fort Street, but he never thought they would kill a man in his late 60s.
“It’s very sad,” Compton said. “God bless his family.”
The 68-year-old man may have left to feed the dogs inside the building on his lunch break. Sadly, he never made it out.
“You try to do good and feed a dog and get killed by them,” Compton said. “They got to do something about that.”
Compton recalls another person who almost fell victim to the same fate.
“A lady was trying to feed them, and she had to dive back into the window because they went after her last summer,” Compton said. “I told her not to try to feed them.”
“We wouldn’t come out when they were loose,” said Ruby Compton. “They run all up and down through here.”
Ruby Compton always had a feeling that something terrible would take place.
“All the time, I said something was going to happen with those dogs,” said Ruby Compton. “They were going to hurt someone.”
Police found the body around 2 p.m. Tuesday (April 4). What’s unclear is if the dogs were ever found as well.
“Animal control came, but I never seen them pull a dog out,” Gordon Compton said.
Residents nearby say they want the building knocked down.
“Tear it down,” Ruby Compton said. “It needed to be torn down for years, and people were living in there.”
The name of the victim has yet to be released.
On April 6, a representative from Detroit said the dogs belong to the owner of the building.
They said dogs were licensed, vaccinated and were secured inside the property when the man entered the property without permission.
The dogs were not aggressive toward animal control, according to the representative.
The dogs are now in quarantine at the animal shelter for a 10-day mandatory evaluation period.
