Pit bull
People march with their pit bull terrier dogs in support of their animals, in Medellin, Colombia, on Jan. 29, 2017. Raul Arboleda/GETTY

A disturbed dog attacked two teenage girls in Queens, New York, on Sept. 17. It dug its teeth into one of the victim’s stomach and held the other teenager by the wrist and was fatally shot by the responding officers.

According to a report in the New York Daily News, the dog was identified as a black American bulldog that attacked the girls near the OD Tobacco and Grocery on Wyckoff Avenue and Weirfield Street in Ridgewood, New York, around 10:10 p.m. EDT.

A man by the name Fuoad Fuoad, a halal cook, spoke to the NY Daily News and said that he was smoking outside a friend’s apartment when he saw the girls walking the dog when it attacked them.

Fuoad described the event and said, “He went crazy. He bit into her and pulled her to the ground. He started jerking her wrist with his mouth.The girl was punching the dog in the head trying to get him off. There was a lot of blood. The dog was bleeding from his mouth.” He later also described how he and his friend tried to get the dog under control but it was strong.

According to Fuoad, a police officer who was called got out of the car and hit the dog with an electric rod several times but it didn’t seem to work. "(The baton) didn't do anything. The officer had to pull his gun and shoot the dog in the neck,” Fuoad said.

Interestingly this is not the first instance where a man was attacked by a dog or a group of them. In the past few months, there have been several reported cases of dogs attacking people in public places and then being shot to death.

In April 2017 a pack of dogs was shot by armed officers as they attacked a man and a woman in a park. Speaking to the Daily Mail a policeman confirmed that a 60-year-old woman was rushed to hospital after suffering serious injuries as she was bitten on the hand by one of the dogs.

Police confirmed that they arrived on the scene after it was reported that "six pit-bull type dogs" were out of control in the town center. The police then had to shoot the dogs to get the situation under control.

A similar incident occurred in June 2017 as well in Bilston, a town in the English county of West Midlands. The dog was apparently identified as a Staffordshire-Cross breed. It attacked a 57-year-old man in the garden. West Midlands Police confirmed to the Birmingham Mail that the dog belonged to the family of the same man who was bitten.

A spokesman for West Midlands Police said they were called to an address after a dog was shot by a member of the public after attacking a man. Officers attended the address in High fields Road, at 8.25 p.m. (3.25 p.m. EDT) on Monday, June 19, the Birmingham Mail reported. It was later confirmed that the dog was shot dead by a nearby neighbor with a licensed shotgun, in order to stop the attack.