Tamieka White, 46, a Marion County sheriff's deputy, was killed while dog sitting for a friend.
Deputy Killed by Dog
Indianapolis, IN - A Marion County sheriff's deputy is dead and her son is hospitalized after being attacked while dog sitting the animal in their home. 46-year old Tamieka White was pronounced dead at the scene Tuesday night. Indianapolis police officers were dispatched to the 1700 block of Forsythia Drive at about 8:00 pm Tuesday on reports of an aggressive dog. Officers located the adult female victim lying on the ground with injuries inside a garage adjacent to the residence.
Officers attempted to enter the garage but were stopped by an aggressive dog. Officers shot and killed the dog. White had been with the Marion County Sheriff’s Department since 2007 and worked in the Judicial Enforcement Division. “Deputy White was a bright light to all that knew her,” said Sheriff Kerry Forestal. “We are immensely grateful for her nearly 17 years of service to our agency. We will work to uphold her legacy as a courageous and dedicated public servant.”
Police found White's 8-year old son inside the residence, who had also been bitten by the dog. He was transported to a local Level 1 trauma center with non-life-threatening injuries and is listed in "good condition." IMPD Maj. Mike Leepper said that three other dogs were found inside the home, and only one of them belonged to White. She had been dog sitting three dogs, including the attacker, for a friend, according to police. The dogs were taken into custody by authorities.
"IACS said three live dogs, one dead dog, and one cat were impounded from the east side home following the deadly attack. IACS said all of the dogs, including the deceased dog, appeared to be “pit bull-type dogs.” IACS cannot confirm the breed without a DNA test, but does not plan on testing for the exact breed." - WXIN, Joe Schroeder, May 10, 2023
According to media reports, a man went to the scene Tuesday and told police the dogs belonged to his girlfriend, and he wanted them back. Police told him the dogs would continue to be held by animal control. Just three days earlier, on May 6, IACS was called to the same home on a report of two loose, aggressive dogs. The officer found two dogs in front of a broken fence on the side of the home, and a third dog in the backyard. The owner was also apparently notified about this.
WTHR reports that the fatal attack occurred in the fenced-in backyard. According to neighbors, White's son ran from the home and began knocking on doors asking for help. "He was in shock," said the neighbor. "He kept repeating several things over and over concerning his mom." The neighbor said the dogs weren't familiar. White confirmed to the neighbor she was dog sitting the day before the attack and also said she was going to fix the fence the dogs had broken through.
As recently as December 2022, White was tagged in a Facebook post about a litter of pit bull puppies by seller/breeder, Danica. "They are ready to go! Inbox me! There are 4 boys and 3 girls!" Danica said the dogs were "standard bullies," one of the four sizes of the American bully. Danica also commented on a photo on White's Facebook page that shows the "light skin" puppy from the December post. "She sooo spoiled I love it!" Apparently, White acquired that dog from the litter.
Tamieka White, 46-years old, was killed and her son injured while dog sitting for a friend.
Three days before the deadly attack, the pit bulls had broken out of the victim's fence.
View the DogsBite.org Google State Map: Indiana Fatal Pit Bull Attacks.Related articles:
10/19/21: 2021 Dog Bite Fatality: Grandmother Killed by Family Pit Bull in Matthews, Indiana
10/15/21: 2021 Dog Bite Fatality: 84-Year Old Woman Killed by Son's Dogs in Indiana...
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.
Owning pit bulls is a gamble at best
Not to be disrespectful to this deceased law officer
Sounds like she rolled the dice
Play dumb games, win dumb prizes
My condolences to the child what a horrific experience and loss for this 8 yr old and I don’t see any mention of a father or 2nd parent-i hope he has good responsible wise family members that are willing to raise him if his father is ot living or available
So sad
Lying on the ground, not laying (one of the articles had the same typo). Danica is selling pitbull puppies for $1,000 each (maybe she’ll use the money to replace the carpet). I wish it were illegal to breed pitbull-type dogs and other large, dangerous dog breeds.
Let me guess the aggressive dogs are pitbulls.I don’t understand for the life of me why people decide to dogsit if the dogs are pitbull knowing the horrific case of pitbull killing the dogsitter.now tamieka is just another case of the pitbull killing stories like is she one of those people who believe the misunderstanding of pitbull.not only did she put herself in danger of watching the pitbull if that the case but she put her little boy and danger now he have to lived with for the rest of his life watching his mother died in front of him poor boy.
If I had to guess she was pet sitting parents of light colored puppy possible parents and sibling , considering someone showed up saying my GF money machines I mean dogs
theres a picture of the child in the car with the pit puppy , its another case of thought you could raise them right etc
A sheriff breeding/dealing pit bulls, broken fence, dog sitting more pit bulls. Not the type of person we really need in law enforcement. Killed ‘doing what she loves’. The only one I sympathize with is the son.
Doesn’t surprise me in the slightest.
Years ago, there was a pack of robo-barking pit bulls near my house. I called the police to report the noise disturbance. Oh, did I ever.
One fine evening, the two officers from Tucson’s finest showed up at my door for the purpose of informing me that I had called 27 times to report these noisy dogs! And what a bad person I was!
Well, I suspected that the cops had another agenda, and I was right. One of them bragged at me about the bully breeds that he owned. What a tough guy he was!
Any-hoo, the neighbors and their dogs moved a short time after my visit from the po-po. And you won’t be at all surprised to learn that they still do nothing about chronic animal noise complaints. Neither does the Pima Animal Care Center.
27 times, eh? Thanks for making me LOL heartily early in my day!
Yep.
There are more idiots in today’s society than there are non idiots
I was reading another news articles and some dude named mike say something like it rare to see dogs attack and the victims are children but sometimes adults but it doesn’t always results in death. What rock is he living under.pitbull been attacking and mostly killing people for years it even happens in the 1980.
I watched that too. My interpretation was that he sees kids getting bitten by dogs all the time.
It annoys the hell out of me when they keep saying “the dogs” over and over. Get real and name them what they were. Initially I thought this deputy must have died in the line of duty protecting the little boy, but once I read that they were her own pits/ones she was watching for a friend/relative like is so often the case, I lost a lot of my sympathy. I don’t know if that makes me a bad person, but if you play around with these potentially deadly animals, you’re half asking for it. She also put her young son in danger, not to mention the entire neighborhood as they kept escaping.
I don’t if Colleen mention it but it wasn’t her pitbull that killed her it was her friend dog that killed her.anyway they never released the dog breed but most people knows its pitbull we aren’t babies watching the news I wonder why they are taking so long to say the dogs breed.
I thought I read that one pit puppy and a cat were actually hers.
It will be interesting to see if this attack will influence Animal Care and Control. This doggy pound has become a pittie pound. The stages of this pound are as follows:
1. Adopt out zero dogs but
return strays to owners. If someone wanted to have a dog in the pound, that person got lots of info on the dog and then sent someone into the pound who would tell the shelter personnel that dog was theirs. He/she would pay the price and rescue the dog
2. Adopt out only dogs at least six months old. I saw a number of puppies that appeared to be under three months old which were over six months old on paperwork.
3. Adopt out all dogs possible but PTS all pitbulls
No pitbull adoptions.
4. Adopt out all dogs including pitbulls. Try to become a no-kill shelter
This is the state of affairs today. I don’t know why any police officer would become involved with a pitbull breeder. I do get pictures on Facebook nearly everyday from
ACAC. They are all pitbulls and pittie mixes.
Is it possible to revert to an earlier model?
What goes through peoples heads, when they bring these dangerous breeds into the home, when there are young children around? Surely they are not so brainwashed into thinking that pits/bully breeds are just like any other breed and it’s ‘all how you raise them’? The pitbull lobby has blood on their hands. They actively push for adoption of adult pitbulls into unsuspecting family homes, while not knowing the dogs background and being deliberately deceptive about the breeds genetic tendencies/traits. It’s a shame that people have to learn the hard way.
I predict a mother’s day mauling fatality that will be hidden and protected from media and news outlets for atleast 5 days
Or possibly the sad event will never make it to the news and we’ll see it as a number on a government report in a few years.
Update I was looking to see what type of dog killed her I googled her name .there was no mention but according to the root the dog was pitbull or “it looked like a pitbull” by the guy who was there. i forgot his job title.if that’s true well duh everyone already knew it was pitbulls.
Madeleine, try copying her name from the first photo caption in this article. You will see dozens of search results of her death story. She has an unusual name.
This has gone viral for days now, most likely due to her first-responder job.
https://www.fox7austin.com/news/austin-texas-girl-attacked-pit-bull-owner-eviction
Dog owner said – that she is guilty of petting his dog, who was on the leash.
This child is tremendously lucky to be alive.. but her “go fund me” page is not so generous.
Just because it’s so rare to see any acknowledgement of the elevated risks of pit bulls and their unhinged fans…a headline from the satirical site the Onion:
Golden Retriever Mauls 5 In Huge Victory For Pitbull Apologists
https://twitter.com/TheOnion/status/1665455910318223362?cxt=HHwWhMC9ufLU8ZwuAAAA
There should be uproar about this. Instead it’s, “We are immensely grateful for her nearly 17 years of service to our agency” and silence.