NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — A woman was attacked by two dogs recently in the Colonial Place neighborhood in Norfolk, with a neighbor capturing it on her doorbell camera.
That neighbor, Stephanie Clark, said the attack appeared unprovoked. She wasn’t home when the attack happened around 10 a.m. Thursday, but she caught it on her doorbell camera.
The video shows the victim looking out over the water. She turns, but stops when she sees the dogs and their owners. Suddenly, the two rottweilers lunge forward, tackling the woman and bringing their owner to the ground. Clark said the whole thing seemed unprovoked.
“There was no direct contact, she didn’t go up to pet them or anything,” Clark said. “So when I saw them kind of lunge and pull away from the person that was walking them, yeah, it’s really scary,” Stephanie Clark said.
She said it was too windy that day and can’t hear if anything was said to the dogs or the owner. Clark said she knows of a woman in the neighborhood who owns rottweilers. She said the dogs in the neighborhood are normally very friendly.
“I saw them on my other camera walking in front of my house when they were leaving and they walked by another person with a dog, walking, and they seemed fine,” Clark said. “So it really seemed, perhaps, out of character for these particular dogs.”
Clark knows there can be stigmas about certain dogs, especially rottweilers.
“To me, the concern isn’t the breed,” Clark said. “It’s how well behaved are they? And can the dog walker control them?”
Remarks made on Facebook about the incident said the woman was bleeding and an ambulance came to the scene. 10 On Your Side does not know the identity of the victim or the dog owner, but we have reached out to Norfolk Animal Control for more information and are waiting to hear back.