Dog Attacks Woman in Wayne

A dog attacked a woman in the early afternoon Wednesday in the South Wayne area of Lansdowne and Audubon avenues.

According to police, the older woman was walking her sister’s Doberman Pinscher, who lives in the 300 block of South Wayne Avenue, when the dog started biting her face. After the first incident she continued to walk the dog, but minutes later the attack grew more serious, said the man who wrestled the dog away.

Chris O’Sullivan, a landscaper with Frank O’Sullivan Landscaping, was working on the block around 1:30 p.m. when he heard screams and turned to see the dog “rear up, jumping up towards her face.”

Two bystanders in a mini van “started beeping and screaming, ‘the dog is attacking her’,” O’Sullivan told Radnor Patch. As the landscaper moved towards them, the dog knocked the woman to the ground and continued to bite her face and head, he said.

“The woman was screaming at the top of her lungs,” O’Sullivan said.  The bystanders were screaming and honking the car horn. “To me it was a surreal moment,” he said. “The dog was literally jumping up and taking bites from this woman’s face.”

O’Sullivan said he grabbed the dog off of the woman and pinned it against his neck to a stop sign. “The dog was humungous,” he said, but “this dog was on her, she was trying to cover her face… I didn’t even think twice about it.”

O’Sullivan said the woman had severe lacerations to her face. She was transported to Bryn Mawr Hospital, according to Radnor Police Lieutenant Chris Flanagan.

“We’re concerned every time we hear a story like this,” Flanagan said. “We’re taking this incident very seriously.” Police continue to investigate. A dog warden from the state is evaluating the case, Flanagan said.

Flanagan said the police plan on publicly acknowledging O’Sullivan and a Fed-Ex deliveryman who also helped out at the scene. “They were heroic in their efforts,” he said.

Two days later, O’Sullivan still can’t believe what happened.

“To be in the center of Wayne and see a Doberman attacking an older woman… I was shocked the entire day. I can’t even tell you.”