MIDDLEBURG - Authorities and family members are looking for answers about why a pair of pit bull terriers with no history of violence suddenly turned on their owner Tuesday, killing her and keeping others from being able to help her.
It was about 8 a.m. Tuesday when Tina Marie Canterbury, 42, was found lying in the back yard of her rural Middleburg neighborhood with the 2-year-old pit bull terriers Rebel and Thor standing over her.
The dogs could be heard barking viciously at the woman's son as he talked with emergency dispatchers and tried to check her pulse.
Canterbury had been bitten in the face and upper body and was dead by the time deputies arrived.
Her son, Christopher "Cody" Canterbury, 21, was bitten in the neck as he tried to reach her but did not suffer serious injuries.
She was killed by her two dogs.
In the 911 call, he can be heard trying frantically to reach his mother while yelling at the dogs to get back.
"She's got a cut on her eye and her shirt's all bloody," he tells the dispatcher before trying to see if his mother has a pulse or is breathing.
As he moves closer, he begins screaming at the dogs to move and get away before saying he feels a pulse but can't detect breathing. As he yells louder and louder at the dogs to move, the phone goes dead.
In a second call, a man who identifies himself as Joe said his brother had been attacked by the dogs as he tried to check their mother's pulse.
"They are in the back yard," he said. "They are over my mom and they won't let us get near."
When deputies pull up, he yells: "Hey, if they come at you, shoot 'em."
According to a Sheriff's Office report, one of those at the house, Joseph Harrell, 21, had already shot at the dogs to scare them off.
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/100307/met_204816739.shtml
It was about 8 a.m. Tuesday when Tina Marie Canterbury, 42, was found lying in the back yard of her rural Middleburg neighborhood with the 2-year-old pit bull terriers Rebel and Thor standing over her.
The dogs could be heard barking viciously at the woman's son as he talked with emergency dispatchers and tried to check her pulse.
Canterbury had been bitten in the face and upper body and was dead by the time deputies arrived.
Her son, Christopher "Cody" Canterbury, 21, was bitten in the neck as he tried to reach her but did not suffer serious injuries.
She was killed by her two dogs.
In the 911 call, he can be heard trying frantically to reach his mother while yelling at the dogs to get back.
"She's got a cut on her eye and her shirt's all bloody," he tells the dispatcher before trying to see if his mother has a pulse or is breathing.
As he moves closer, he begins screaming at the dogs to move and get away before saying he feels a pulse but can't detect breathing. As he yells louder and louder at the dogs to move, the phone goes dead.
In a second call, a man who identifies himself as Joe said his brother had been attacked by the dogs as he tried to check their mother's pulse.
"They are in the back yard," he said. "They are over my mom and they won't let us get near."
When deputies pull up, he yells: "Hey, if they come at you, shoot 'em."
According to a Sheriff's Office report, one of those at the house, Joseph Harrell, 21, had already shot at the dogs to scare them off.
http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/100307/met_204816739.shtml