Elderly woman hospitalized after dog attack on Starnes Avenue in Fort Myers

An elderly woman has been hospitalized after a dog attack on Starnes Avenue in Fort Myers.

According to the Fort Myers Police Department, two pit bulls were attacking the woman when officers arrived, and the dogs then tried to attack one of the officers.

The officer tried to pepper-spray one of the dogs, but that didn’t work, so the officer had to shoot it.

The second dog was taken by Lee County Domestic Animal Services for testing.

This may not have been the first incident involving the dog shot by the officer.

One woman who witnessed the attack was very shaken, telling WINK News it was one of the worst things she had ever seen.

She said she woke up to the sounds of the attack happening: A person was repeatedly honking their car horn, and the dogs were barking. The woman, who wished to be identified only as Shirly, got in her car to go across the street to see what was happening.

“It’s still with me right now,” Shirly said. “You can imagine seeing somebody in that situation, and you can’t do anything to help them … it’s horrific, ’cause I feel so bad for that lady. Oh, my God, I feel so bad for her. I just hope she’s OK. I just hope she survives this, but… it was bad. It was bad.”

One man said his brother was attacked by the pair of dogs, “He was walking right down that road down there. And then he was attacked on the Fourth of July. They ate him all up. He stayed in the hospital for three days.”

This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.