A woman was killed by three pit bulls with a history of aggression in Portsmouth, Virginia.
Pit Bulls Kill Woman
Portsmouth, VA - A woman is dead after being mauled by three pit bulls in the middle of the night, police said. Portsmouth police responded to a residence in the 1800 block of Atlanta Avenue just after 1:30 am Friday. Arriving officers found the woman with life-threatening injuries. She was transported to a hospital, where she died. All three pit bulls were taken into custody, Portsmouth Police Chief Stephen Jenkins said. The investigation is ongoing, but no other details are available at this time, Jenkins said.
“It is still early in the investigation. Obviously animal control and my detectives are looking into the facts and circumstances surrounding it." - Portsmouth Police Chief Stephen Jenkins
WAVY reporter Brian Reese, spoke to neighbor Lawrence Davis, who confirmed the attack occurred at 1815 Atlanta Avenue. Davis said the woman was visiting the home at the time. The dog owner is a man, but Davis did not know his name. WVEC-TV spoke to neighbors who said the dogs have been involved in at least three prior acts of aggression recently, including biting a man and aggressively chasing children on bicycles. Police have not identified the owner of the dogs or the mauling victim.
Chief Jenkins later confirmed the previous attacks to WVEC-TV and suggested the victim had been trespassing. "It has come to light that Portsmouth Animal Patrol officers had indeed responded on three prior occasions over the last 12 months with one being for a bite injury," Jenkins said. The dogs were secure when the attack occurred, he said. "We urge residents to refrain from trespassing or attempting to interact with animals without explicit permission from their owners," Jenkins said.
Mauling Victim Identified
Neighbors and an eyewitness identified the victim as Cindy White, who is known by people who live in the home. According to the eyewitness, White walked into the home and moved the "bar and speaker" that were positioned to "barricade" the dogs in the back room. Then White went into the back room, where she was viciously attacked by the dogs. A woman who lives a block over could hear White's screams, WAVY reports. Apparently, White had been trying to visit a man who lives in the back room.
After hearing White's screams, some associates of hers came over to the house, neighbors said, and attacked the man who was sleeping in the back room. “Some people jumped on the person who lives in the house,” Davis explained. “They blame him, and they beat him up ... He was taken to the hospital ... and I don’t know the status.” WAVY shot drone video from above the house and captured images inside the home too. A person who lives in the home, shot pictures from a reporter's cell phone.
White had multiple Facebook pages. Friends and family members tagged her most recent one after learning about her death. One of her older Facebook pages appears to show her in the backyard of the home at 1815 Atlanta Avenue. On April 13, White's sister, Tamika, hosted a balloon release for White using white and gold balloon colors. White turned 50-years old on October 28, 2022, making her 51-years old at the time of her death. Portsmouth police did not release White's age or her name.
Covid Fatality in Portsmouth
Back in March of 2020, just as the Covid crisis erupted, Demi Witherspoon, 2-years old, was killed by a family pit bull in Portsmouth. That attack occurred in the 5600 block of Darby Close, about 15 miles to the northwest of this location. At that time, we reported that the dispatcher for Portsmouth Police and Fire stated in the audio log files on Broadcastify.com: "We have a pit bull who just bit the complainant's daughter's face completely off." There were no relevant audio dispatch log files for the recent attack.
Home on Atlanta Avenue where three pit bulls with a history of aggression killed Cindy White.
WAVY footage shows the "barricaded" entrance to the back room with a "bar and speaker."
View the DogsBite.org Google Map: Virginia Fatal Pit Bull Maulings.Related articles:
11/10/22: 2022 Dog Bite Fatality: Church Leader Dies After Being Mauled by Pit Bull in Richmond
01/20/22: 2022 Dog Bite Fatality: Rottweiler Kills 7-Year Old Girl, Injures Adult Female in Waynesboro
Law enforcement departments across the United States should release consistent "baseline" information to the media and the public after each fatal dog mauling, including these items.
The police chief’s reminder “to not trespass or attempt to interact with animals without explicit permission from the owners” is blaming the victim.
“Some people jumped on the person who lives in the house. They blame him, and they beat him up … He was taken to the hospital,” a neighbor said. Justice shouldn’t be left to vigilantes – but they have a better understanding than the police chief about who is to blame.
Also laws and Animal Control or the lack thereof.
Maybe victim blaming is wrong, but victims wouldn’t always be victims if they were more careful. This story is confusing. Were alcohol and/or drugs involved?
If I were a farmer and kept a very dangerous, top producing bull in a secure pen with plenty of warning signs, whose fault would it be if a stranger entered the pen and was killed? The farmer’s, as he should have kept a very poorly producing gentle bull?
I read today about zoo employees stealing alligator eggs from under alligators. Does this sound very safe? For trained staff, it might be. For other people, it’s idiocy.
I personally think that the answer here may not always be simple.
That bull has a purpose, it doesn’t exist to harm people. People don’t always agree on what is right and what is wrong; I think weaponized dogs serve no good purpose, produce nothing good, and shouldn’t exist.
Isn’t it illegal to set up booby traps in your home meant to mail or kill intruders?
It is easy to avoid a dangerous bull.
The insidious thing about pit bulls is that they usually live in houses with humans. And therein lies the problem.
The story IS confusing. Why did the victim move barricades and enter the room? I don’t get it.
I’m with you Cindy. I call bullroar on this. The owner claims the dogs were barricaded and unless someone else confirms that with video proof I don’t believe a word of it.
How many times have pitbull owners claimed that someone entered their yard which turns out to be nonsense? Or that someone did something mean to their beloved pibbles forcing it to defend itself? Or that the victim had the audacity to sneeze and scare da pibbles into cannibalizing them?
The dogs had a history of aggression. We all know pitbulls can eat a car, knock over hundreds of pounds to get to a target etc. etc.
People take the law into their own hands when they feel like there’s no justice for them. And in the case of pitbull ownership and responsibility, that’s far too often, the truth. Or someone afraid of their neighbours thinks a pitbull will keep them away without thinking through the consequences of that choice.
Someone keeping or living with a pit bull (mix) would be a deal breaker of friendship for me. The times I’ve had personal encounters with them I can count on two hands, but I remember each and every detail from those moments. Looking back, it was like being in the presence of a man eating shark.
Thank you so much, Colleen. You are truly appreciated and loved for your commitment and dedication to this cause.♡
Maybe she was going to feed the dogs. Maybe she was seeking to talk to the owner. Maybe she was just curious as to what was behind door #3.
Regardless of the circumstances, whether it was a miscalculation of the danger involved or an accident or a tragic chain of fantastic events that all began with viewing a few items that would have been tough to unload as a Craigslist curb alert freebie…
Another person is dead after a savage attack by the usual suspect{s].
She didn’t seek this fate deliberately. Nor deserve it.
Interesting that a group of people sought out the owner for some vigilante justice. They must have realized the “accident” angle doesn’t apply here. That despite the narrative put forth by “Nanny dog Nation”, that these “things” are dangerously unpredictable , and keeping one in your home is akin to booby trapping it with landmines. What an awful way to drive home the “can’t fool all the people all of the time” lesson.
Unfortunately, she probably believed the dangerous Nanny dog LIE.
I hope they guy they beat up was actually the owner.
If he was I think Chris Rock put it best “I can’t condone it. I can understand it, but I can’t condone it.”