Daniel Bonacorsi, 58, was killed by a pair of pit bulls inside a boarded-up vacant Detroit building.
Man Killed by Pit Bulls
Detroit, MI - A 58-year old man was discovered dead inside a boarded-up vacant building on Tuesday. Police believe the man was attacked and killed by two pit bulls being kept in the building. The man was found around 1:30 pm inside an expansive vacant building in the 5400 block of West Fourth Street. According to Detroit police Cpl. Dan Donakowski, the man had entered the building with another person. Both pit bulls were captured by Detroit Animal Care and Control Division.
Police later clarified the other man did not get attacked by the dogs. "There was another person along with him that did not get attacked," Donakowski said. Police are unsure "if he was actually at the scene at the time that the male was attacked, but he was near the location." Police also said that both men had been trying to help the dogs when the two pit bulls attacked one of the men. Surprisingly, both dogs were fully licensed and vaccinated indicating the dogs have an owner.
Detroit Free Press reports that the building was under renovation and confirmed the dogs were owned, licensed, vaccinated and secured by the property owner, according to John Roach, director of media relations for the city of Detroit. WDIV-TV interviewed Gordon Compton, who lives nearby. Compton said a woman escaped the same fate a few weeks earlier as she tried to feed the dogs. The dogs also ran loose in the area. Nearby residents want the building torn down.
Fox 2 Detroit reports that another suspicious death occurred at this building on September 7, 2022. Detroit police were dispatched to the same building after a man apparently broke in and was discovered dead. Police said the dogs had come in contact with the man, but his cause of death is still undetermined. The Wayne County Medical Examiner said "there are external findings that require further interpretation." The building's manager would not comment to the reporter.
There are several cases where the same dogs killed a human being, and for a variety of reasons -- such as police did not initially suspect the dogs as the culprits or authorities were forced to release the dogs back to their owner -- and the dogs killed a second person. The most recent case involves the 2018 conviction of Eric Hodges in Benton County, Mississippi. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison after his pack of pit bulls killed two different men over a 10-week period.
The Dog's Owner
On Wednesday, a Detroit man named Dustin Shepherd stated in a Facebook post that he owned the two pit bulls. "They got my dogs I will be getting them back the guy broke into the building and my dogs felt threatened and protected their home," he wrote. In the post, he links to the WXYZ report. Shepherd added in comments, "I got two lawyers on it they are going to save my dogs." That sounds more like the September 7 incident, when an intruder did break into the building.
On March 27 Shepherd posted that he licensed and vaccinated his dogs. According to Shepherd, his male pit bull weighed 66-pounds and the female weighed 65-pounds. On November 6, 2022 Shepherd took both of his dogs for a walk and passed by the same building (@ 5:14) at 5435 West Fort Street, known as, "The Works." One year earlier, Shepherd posted that I "got my boy out of jail," referring to his male pit bull, that he had retrieved from the Taylor Animal Shelter.
In the November video, as he walks by the building, Shepherd states, "We're not going home, we're going to keep walking. Don't worry..."
Finally, after his two pit bulls killed Daniel Bonacorsi on April 4, 2023, Shepherd posted to social media, "It happened again my boy DeNiro got another body two guys broke into the building today and my dogs felt threatened so one of the two guys did not make it out." That post has since been removed. Perhaps, that's not a good thing to brag about if Shepherd desperately wants his double man killing pit bulls returned to him (so the dogs can kill a third individual). Seriously. Detroit.
Dustin Shepherd said after his two pit bulls killed a man on April 4, "It happened again."
On March 27, Dustin Shepherd said that he licensed and vaccinated both of his pit bulls.
On November 1, 2021, Shepherd posted that he "got my boy out of jail," referring to his dog.
Graphic Medical study: Pitbull Mauling Deaths in Detroit, by Cheryl L. Loewe MD et al., The American Journal of Forensic Medicine and Pathology, Vol 28, December 2007.
View the DogsBite.org Google State Map: Michigan Fatal Pit Bull Attacks.Related articles:
08/22/19: 2019 Dog Bite Fatality: 9-Year Old Girl Killed by Three Pit Bulls on Detroit's West Side
03/08/18: 2014 Dog Bite Fatality: Mississippi, Second Human Fatality Inflicted by Same Pit Bulls
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.
If breeding and keeping deadly dogs is legal, why can’t we all have landmines and hand grenades rigged to explode when stray dogs, including puppies, trespass thru a gate?
The land mine /hand grenade was just doing its job.
Yes! Why is this legal? And the owner goes on social media and screams about how the victims deserved it and the dogs didn’t do anything wrong. I think the owner did something wrong and should go to jail, but apparently the law in on his side – it’s perfectly ok to keep landmines on your property to kill intruders, as long as the booby traps are canine in nature.
I hope someone is keeping screenshots and video copies of the trash this person is posting. He is responsible for the deaths of at least two people and should be held culpable.
People get sued and held liable when a neighbor kid trespasses onto their property and drowns in their swimming pool. Attractive nuisance doctrine. I hope the survivors will get good legal representation.
DBO subscribers, you must not miss the photo report link below the mauler photos. You could ask pitbull aficionado friends if they can identify the first photo in the upper lefthand corner of the report…before reading the photo caption.
Heartbreakingly horrifying when I found this last year. Thank you for including this, Dogsbite. We need to stand for the truth about these savage maulings. It is no small thing for pitbull maulings to devastate first responders.
Those autopsy photos are very, very graphic. I feel they should be included with the brochure “So You Decided to ‘Adopt’ a Pit Bull” that they give you at the shelter.
Some of those pics were of a very young baby’s body parts, retrieved from a pitbills stomach. This filthy breed will attack you like a wild animal that wants to eat you (like a lion or bear) I no longer like the term for dogs, ‘man’s best friend’ because they’re not!
This scan of the original doesn’t do it justice.
I think I have seen those pics in color before.
Here is a clearer version of them in B&W.
You many not want to look at this:
https://www.readkong.com/page/pitbull-mauling-deaths-in-detroit-8000354
Here it is in a PDF you can save, still b and w.
https://pdfhost.io/v/ehVf1Kvf_paf0b013e31815b4c19pdf.pdf
So the guy is a serial killer via his dogs, and there’s no jail time. Wow!
Another day another shit pit owner that needs to go to jail.
Creating a man-trap is NOT LEGAL.
Psychopathic owner declared publicly after each killing that the dogs were functioning as intended. Where is law enforcement?
First of all that owner is a nutcase.second isn’ this consider animal cruelty since he leave his vicious dog alone.that poor guy getting killed because he tried to saved the dog .they not going anything because america worship the pitbull over people .people keep dying from pitbull attacks and yet people still owned those dangerous dogs.
These maulers have had the taste of blood and are driven to kill. So sad, this victim thought he could “help” these dogs. Same with a woman who tried to feed them and escaped death. Here, again, dog-lovers are not educated about bully breeds. They still think a dog is a dog is a dog. They’ve bought into the myth that pitbulls will be “grateful” for food, housing, petting, love, attention, whatever! It’s like going out on a date with Ted Bundy. Maybe this time he won’t kill me. These particular dogs are serial killers. And by proxy, so is that heartless, lunatic owner. BTW, people said those dogs were running loose a lot. So, the “protecting” property excuse is B.S.
We will see what happens here. If the dogs were owned and killed the man as a trespasser,
I suspect the dogs are protected by law. If the dogs were loose, the owner would be liable.
Want to get away with murder? Easy. Just use a dog to do the deed.
Your Quiet Neighbor, Exactly! These dogs were loose. They have killed and killed again. Do people “deserve” the death penalty because they wander into a building or on your property? Isn’t that for the courts to decide? And, in fact, this man’s intention wasn’t to steal some rusty pipes or whatever out of that building. He wanted to give aid to two unattended, unsecured dogs. It was an undeserved fatal mistake on his part. The world has gone mad if death is justifiable because of trespassing. How many teenagers go into empty buildings to get into mischief? I did it. Does that warrant capital punishment? I hope this guy is prosecuted to the full extent of the law, although I doubt he will be. These pitbull people literally get away with murder all the time.
The weaponization of pitbulls, rottweilers and other dangerous dogs continues to rise. Against the police, in more confrontations between people, and in ensuring squatters prevent rightful owners from removing them. And quite possibly when a bully owner wants to get rid of a former loved one.
This weaponization must be taken more seriously by local, state and federal legislatures.
And we must draw the line with corporate CEOs when these bully dogs are allowed in stores, as the Colorado Home Depot where a customer was just bitten in the face.
Home Depot may well find itself at the receiving end of a large personal injury lawsuit.
I don’t have any inside information, but I used to date a personal injury lawyer. That individual would have loved to sue a big entity like Home Depot, especially in a dog bite case.
Home Depot is not liable. Simply because the bite happened there is meaningless. Home Dept did nothing wrong. The keywords for a successful lawsuit are duty, breach and negligence.
However, it is interesting to think about the negligence of the trainer. What did the trainer know about the dog, when did she know it and did she place the public at risk. The trainer supposedly is the one with the greater depth of knowledge.
This is another reminder that when taking a dog into public (even though it had a matching pink leash and Gentle Leader), as a trainer, the risk is rarely worth the reward. Which is why in my training business I no longer do it.
https://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/2023/04/13/61-year-old-woman-dies-after-pack-dogs-attack-her-outdoors-authorities-say/