Asked how the Pit Bull had gotten to her dog in the early morning hours on Sunday, November 9, McConnell recalled in an emotional interview how she’d let Saadey out to use the bathroom – “her stomach was a little upset” – while she kept a watchful eye from her back door.
“I saw something across a neighbor’s yard coming toward me and beige in color.
I thought it was a coyote at first. All of a sudden before I could walk over to her, that thing [Pit Bull] ran to our backyard. I swear he leaped over the road. It only took a couple of seconds. I didn’t recognize him until he was on her neck.
“I was screaming and hollering hoping someone would hear me,” McConnell recalled in the interview. “He took her and drug her through [the yard to] my front sidewalk to the street. I stood at the door until about six in the morning until I saw a neighbor. I said, ‘Michael, I need help,’ [referring to Elon councilman Michael Woods, who she said is her neighbor].”
I went and got a towel because I was afraid that dog would come back – I didn’t know what [the Pit Bull] would do. Michael took her and wrapped her in the towel.”
McConnell said she called Elon police as soon as she was able to regain her composure. “Thank God [the dog] didn’t turn on me; I didn’t even think about that.”
Meanwhile, the owner of the Pit Bull, James Melvin King, Jr., of 605 Olsen Drive in Elon, has made no overtures to apologize for the attack that killed Saadey, Mc-Connell told the newspaper. “I’ve heard he’s not a very nice person…If you’re a responsible owner, you would say, ‘what has my dog done?’”
“The dog had blood all over [him],” McConnell said, explaining that he’d been captured on neighbors’ security cameras back at his house shortly after the attack.
“I don’t want him [King] talking to me because he took my baby,” McConnell added. “She [Saadey] has brought so many people together because they all knew her.
“I have that invisible fence but it didn’t stop the dog from getting to her. That makes it extra painful, because I was constantly trying to be protective of her. It was a matter of seconds; I didn’t even have time to reach down. I couldn’t save her.”
McConnell explained that she lives in one of two subdivisions, Cable Square, which shares an entrance with the subdivision where the owner of the Pit Bull lives.”
“All of the neighbors are afraid of the dog,” McConnell elaborated. “[King lives with his dog] about a block or 10 houses down, at the bottom of a culvert. I never go down there. I keep hearing from neighbors the incidents that have occurred at that house – he’s known. They have a fence, but it’s a four-foot fence.”
“The [responding] police officer told me that there have been several other incidents with that dog,” said McConnell. “If you have an aggressive dog and move to another county, that record does not go with that dog. The dog has more rights [than the victims of an attack].”
“The police said this was a vicious attack: there was blood everywhere from the front of the house, to the side of the house, all the way down to the sidewalk,” McConnell recalled.
Now, the homeowners’ associations for the two subdivisions are looking at how they can amend their bylaws to prevent aggressive dogs from running at large in the future, McConnell said.
“I feel so bad for the little kids, the toddlers – this is serious,” she pointed out. “He [King] never walks the dog, so of course the dog wants to get out and run. It’s not socialized properly, so it’s just a wild dog.
Meanwhile, McConnell said she’s taking other measures to protect herself, while her neighbors in Cable Square are being vigilant about monitoring suspected criminal activity in the area. Her neighbors have also agreed since the council meeting to become more proactive about monitoring suspected criminal activity around Cable Square.
“I’m looking at getting a gun…I just put security cameras [and] lights around my house. Everybody’s doing the same, because everybody’s afraid. We never had to do that before.”
