Five days after a dog bit a high school runner during track practice, a Flossmoor police officer located the animal responsible for the attack.
was bitten by a dog recently
while running near this trail
bridge over Butterfield
Creek. (Photo by Tom
Houlihan/HF Chronicle)
Patrol Officer Dan Weaver, acting on a tip from the bite victim’s father, found the dog at a residence near the Dartmouth Avenue bicycle bridge, where the attack took place April 20. The dog’s owner told Weaver that she recalled the encounter between her pet and the runner, but did not know that the girl had been bitten.
The owner confirmed that the dog has up-to-date rabies shots and agreed to pay the girl’s medical expenses, according to a Flossmoor police report.
The girl, a sophomore at Homewood-Flossmoor High School, was bitten by the dog at about 5 p.m. as she ran with other track team members. The police report states that the runners came upon a woman who was walking two dogs near the bicycle bridge, which crosses Butterfield Creek.
According to the report, the girl told police that the owner was having a hard time controlling her dogs, which she believed were pit bulls. One of the dogs jumped on the girl and bit her on the right forearm, leaving two puncture marks. The dog bit the girl through her sweatshirt, the report says.
Since none of the runners were carrying mobile phones, the girl decided to run back to the high school, a distance of 2.1 miles. At the high school, the track coach treated the wound. Later, the girl’s father took her to the hospital for further treatment.
Weaver, who responded to the call, asked the police department clerk to check on dogs that are registered with the village to see if any families have a pair of pit bulls fitting the girl’s description. There was one match, with a family in the Flossmoor Hills area, on the other side of the village. Weaver met with the family, who said that their dogs had never been walked near the bike bridge.
After the attack, the victim’s father drove through the neighborhood near the bridge and saw two dogs that fit his daughter’s description, Deputy Police Tod Kamleiter said. He gave Weaver the address where he had seen the dogs.
Kamleiter said Weaver went to the house but no one was home. However he saw the dogs through the window and took their picture. He showed the picture to the girl, who said she had been bitten by one of the dogs.
The dogs were not pit bulls.
On April 25, Weaver met with the dog owner who said that she had been out walking with her dogs when the group of runners came by. She said her dogs wanted to greet the girls, the police report states. When the dogs got close to the victim, she backed away and screamed, the woman said. The girl’s cry, she said, may have startled one of the dogs, a 70-pound female. The woman said she did not know the girl was bitten and continued walking her dogs as if nothing had happened.
In locating the dog, Weaver showed concern for the victim and her family, and stayed with the case until it was resolved, Kamleiter said.
“He did good work,” Kamleiter said.