A 62-year-old woman has died and a 73-year-old man is recovering Tuesday after being mauled by three neighborhood dogs outside a Missouri home, according to police.
Gladys Anthony, who is deaf, died in surgery at a Saint Louis hospital after the attack in her Walnut Park West neighborhood, the St. Louis Metro Police Department reported.
The area is about 8 miles northwest of downtown St. Louis.
“Because my aunt was deaf, she never heard the dogs approach,” Anthony’s niece VRene Green wrote a fundraiser page she created to help the family with funeral expenses. “She had no warning, no chance to protect herself.”
A man who intervened with a pistol and broom in an effort to fight the dogs also suffered injuries in the Friday night attack, police said. He was expected to survive.
Responding officers were able to distract the dogs and deployed pepper spray, police said, causing the animals to run off.
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‘Fending off the dogs with a broom’
Police said they responded to Anthony’s home about 11:45 p.m. for reports of shots fired in the area as well as calls for help.
Arriving officers found “a severely injured 62-year-old woman” and an injured 73-year-old man surrounded by three dogs barking at them in their backyard.
“The man, who was fending off the dogs with a broom, had previously fired shots in an attempt to distract the dogs,” police wrote in a press release.
After officers deployed pepper spray and the dogs fled the location, they entered the yard and found the woman “barely conscious and heavily bleeding.”
Officers were able to pull the woman inside her home in an effort to help her before paramedics arrived and transported her to a hospital where she died in surgery.
The 73-year-old man suffered several bites to his arms and legs, police said, but elected to seek treatment at a later time.
Canvass lead police to dogs at neighboring home
During a canvass of the neighborhood, officers located the dogs entering a yard at a nearby neighboring home where they discovered the animals lived.
The dogs were seized by the City’s Animal Control Division, according to police. The owner of the dogs, a 54-year-old man who police did not identify, was reportedly cooperating with detectives.
As of Tuesday, police spokesperson Evita Caldwell told USA TODAY, the dogs’ owner had not been charged in connection to the crime, but the death investigation remained open and active.
Police did not name the breed of the dogs involved in the attack.
Who was Gladys Anthony?
According to her Facebook page, Anthony studied at Gallaudet University and attended Missouri School for the Deaf.
A woman who “embodied love, strength, and kindness,” Anthony’s niece described her aunt as a devoted wife, mother, grandmother, aunt and friend who spent more than three decades working as a custodian for the Ritenour School District.
“She was known for her hard work, warm smile, and willingness to help anyone in need,” Green wrote on the fundraising page that, as of Tuesday, had raised more than $4,200 to help the family. “She was a beloved member of the community, respected for her integrity, dedication, and the joy she brought to others simply by being herself.”
Her daughter, Keisha Anthony, posted a tribute to her mother on social media the day before what would have been her 63rd birthday.
“My angel,” the victim’s daughter wrote on Facebook. “We are missing (you). Just know I’m fighting for (your) justice and trying to hold the family down.”
USA TODAY has reached out to the victim’s family.
Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on X @nataliealund.
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