Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 29, 1995 TAG: 9507310050
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MATT CHITTUM STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Police have captured the dogs and charged their owners in the attacks.
Carolyn Viar, 43, was helping her husband, Ron, deliver The Roanoke Times when the dogs attacked her. She also helps him transport Medicaid patients to their doctors during the day.
Friday morning, they were separated only about two minutes to deliver papers in different apartment buildings. Before they could meet up again, the dogs ambushed her.
"All I saw was three black objects," said Ron Viar. "I couldn't even see my wife. They were just all over her."
It was about 4:30 a.m., and Ron Viar said he had gone to get the car to pick up his wife. When he turned the corner to meet her, he heard her screaming his name.
He said the dogs hit his wife from the back as she crossed a yard. By the time he saw her, the 5-foot-3 woman was on her back with the dogs tearing at her.
"I don't even remember putting the car in park. I just ran to help her."
The stocky, 37-year-old former security guard said he kicked one dog and scooped up and threw aside another. But, he said, by then, the biggest of the dogs already had chewed heavily on his wife's arm. He hit that dog as hard as he could between its eyes.
He helped his wife up, and she walked to a woman who was outside her house. Left to contend with the dogs himself, he continued to kick at them, keeping them at bay until he heard a woman calling for them.
Carolyn Viar was taken to Roanoke Memorial Hospital with severe bite wounds to her right bicep, right breast and left leg. She was in satisfactory condition Friday evening.
At the hospital, Ron Viar learned the dogs had attacked another man a few blocks away about an hour before his wife was mauled.
According to a Roanoke police news release, Robert Shelton, 52, of Marshall Avenue Southwest was walking to work in the 2200 block of Salem Avenue Southwest when three Rottweilers attacked him. Shelton was treated at Community Hospital of Roanoke Valley for bites on the legs and buttocks and was released.
Lillie Grey, 46, of the 1800 block of Salem Avenue, who owns the largest of the three dogs, has been charged with one count each of keeping a vicious dog, having an unlicensed dog, and not having a dog vaccinated, the release said. A 13-year-old girl related to Grey claimed ownership of the other two dogs. She was charged with two of each of the same counts.
Animal control officers have not decided whether to treat the incidents as separate offenses, the release said, so more charges may be placed. The fate of the dogs will be decided by a judge.
by CNB