Jimmie May McConnell
Posted on 07/28/2006 5:09:06 AM PDT by ShadowDancer
71-Year-Old Mauled To Death While Gardening
Neighbor's Dog Jumps Fence
POSTED: 7:10 am EDT July 28, 2006
UPDATED: 7:28 am EDT July 28, 2006
KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- A 71-year-old woman died Thursday when she was attacked by a pit bull in Kansas City, Kan., officials said.
Jimmie May McConnell was in her garden about 11:30 a.m. when the dog jumped the fence and attacked her.
Firefighters had to hit the dog with an ax and a pole to get it off McConnell, officials said.
"The dog was still on the victim," Assistant Fire Chief Craig Duke said.
McConnell was taken to the University of Kansas Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.
Neighbors said McConnell was so badly injured they could hardly recognize her when she was pulled from the garden.
Residents said the dog belonged to a neighbor.
Animal control officers tranquilized the pit bull and took the animal into custody. A second pit bull at the house was tranquilized and removed Thursday afternoon, KMBC-TV in Kansas City, Mo., reported.
"It gets out once in a while and runs around. I was out here once, and it came up and I petted it," neighbor Preston Williams said.
"I think they need to get rid of all of them dogs. Don't need them killing human beings," said the Rev. John Boykin, a neighbor of McConnell's.
"I'm in shock, and I'm angry," said Gayle McConnell, the victim's niece. "It's been said that pit bulls can be dangerous, but people seem to believe it can't happen to them. It certainly can. I just wish people would heed the warning and do what they need to do."
Friends of McConnell said she was well-liked in the neighborhood and had lived in the area a long time.
"She was a nice lady," Williams said.
Gayle McConnell said her aunt was a great cook and an awesome singer, and her death is an enormous loss to the family.
McConnell leaves behind six children. McConnell was a school crossing guard and was a foster parent for several years.
Pit bulls are banned in Wyandotte County, Kan., where the attack took place.
Police said they have not been able to contact the dog's owner. Officials said they are investigating the case as a homicide.
Several recent pit bull attacks in nearby Independence, Mo., have injured three men. A pit bull was also recently shot to death in Independence when it charged a police officer.
Toddler Dies After Dog Attack In Texas
A toddler in South Texas has died after being mauled by at least one of the family's pit bulls.
The Hidalgo County, Texas, sheriff's department identified the victim as 3-year-old Mariah Puga, of Hargill, Texas.
Investigators said as many as three dogs may have been involved in Monday night's attack, when the child was in the yard.
Puga died early Tuesday at a hospital.
Officials said the two pit bulls and a rottweiler were quarantined.
Authorities also said one of the pit bulls had her puppies with her in the yard.
Woman Serious After Dog Attack
A 26-year-old Davidson County, N.C., woman is in serious condition after she was attacked by two pit bull dogs.
Police in Lexington said they found Kelly Lynn Bell lying in a ditch Thursday with several severe dog bites on her body. She was taken to a hospital for surgery.
Authorities are holding the dogs while they investigate the incident, and no charges have been filed yet.
There is no good reason to own a pit bull.
God rest her soul.
What a horrible way to die. Prayers for the family and kill the dogs.
The owner needs a jail sentence.
Agreed. I know opinion pisses off the pit bull activists, that we that feel this way are ill informed, etc, but I just don't see the point of owning this breed. There are plenty of others to choose from.
Tranquilized? Fine, Tranquilize the **** with a .44 Magnum, or a shotgun. And now, drag the owner to the garden and make him/her put hands in the blood, then charge them with negligent homicide, endangering a community, and every other thing that may apply.
Drug dealers would strenuously disagree with you.
How long before a pit bull owner chimes in here to say the dog was abused or trained to be this way?
Agreed on all levels.
I hate those dogs.
Another mere coincidence involving a pit bull.
2nd or 3rd degree murder.
I dont know if its a good reason, but protection is the reason. That's why they popular in the hood, where this lady probably lived. Hell, even in my neighborhood, which is quiet, I avoid the house with the loose pit bull. Just don't want to go near the damn psycho dog.
Equally obvious is the statistics from the various sites that put dog bites requiring emergency romm treatment anywwhere from 430,000 a year to 800,000 a year are just wrong. No ones precious wecious wittle doggie woggies ever bite anyone.
I have owned a few different breeds of dogs. My favorite was a German Short Haired Pointer that I had trained so well, I could throw a ball and he would sit and stare at it bouncing away...I would say "go!" and he would rocket after it... I could yell "stay!" as he was almost about to grab it and he would skid for about 8 feet as he went into a sitting position and watched it bounce away from him.
I could be swimming in a lake and call him and he would lunge into the water and swim to me, and I could grab his tail (yep, didn't bob it) and tell him to "go" and he would pull me back into shore.
Whenever I was with him at the river, a park or a lake and a pit-bull came on the scene, I would put him in the truck. I found pit-bull owners often tugged their dogs ears and sic'ed them on other dogs just for the fun of it.
A pit bull is like a loaded gun laying in a playground...an accident waiting to happen.
When pit bulls are banned, only criminals will have pit bulls.
Banning dogs doesn't work. The owner needs to serve hard time for homicide becasue that owner is responsible for the actions of those animals. My heart goes out to the family of Jimmie.
LOL!
Yes. I'm just not sure which "degree" negligent homicide is.
Here we go again.....Canis familiarus means dog...period. Breeding is something that is done to select dogs for certain tasks. Now if you dangle kittens in the face of your sweet lovely Golden Retriever and let them scratch their faces, then let the dog kill and dismember the kitten, then move the dog up to people by training them to attack, then you have a potential killer.
The breed may give you a predispostion for certain behavior in dogs, but training will make or break a dog. If this dog was mistreated by some drug dealing scum to attack people at random, then nothing on heaven and earth will change a dog whether its a toy poodle or a pit bull.
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