On the quiet corners of the Quaker Ridge streets, one Scarsdale resident walked his dog on the sidewalk. The two had been enjoying their pleasant Sunday evening walk when a pit bull, later identified to be from a neighboring town, pounced on the Scarsdale pet.

The pit bull had no owner in sight and had already been previously brought to animal court for similar violent misdemeanors involving Scarsdale inhabitants and their pets. The Scarsdale resident called out to any nearby neighbors for help. Some neighbors who also happened to be outside enjoying the evening answered the cry. “I brought out a baseball bat because that was the first thing I saw in my garage. When I brought it out to my neighbor who was walking the dog, I saw the pit bull and rushed my son inside. I was scared for his safety, to be honest. The dog that had pursued the attack seemed to be very aggressive,” said a neighbor of the dog owner. When the dog owner was given the baseball bat, he only tried to shake away the pit bull from his weakened dog; he had no intention of hurting the pit bull. At this point, his own dog’s ear was bleeding. Once the man had gotten the pit bull off of his own dog, he lunged on top of it, and his dog was rushed to safety in another neighbor’s house. The owner soon followed inside when he was able to get away from the pit bull. During the conflict, the dog owner’s arm was bitten. 

The drama doesn’t end there. The police arrived at the scene moments later and the pit bull then attempted to jump on them as well. One of the policemen pulled out his gun and shot at the dog. He missed, and whether this was intentional or not is unknown. “I was very scared. I have never seen a crime like this on our street before, and the gunshots really worried me,” said Adi Cohen, a Scarsdale resident who happened to hear the conflict from her window.

All of the dogs and Scarsdale residents involved in this incident ended up safe. The dog that was attacked received multiple stitches on his ear, and the bitten owner was treated as well. However, the legal battle between the two dog owners continues.