Shortly after arriving home, a Texas man faced a nightmare on his own front porch as his family watched the horror unfold on their Ring doorbell camera. After more than a week in the hospital following the terrifying ordeal, the man was still “too embarrassed to leave the house without a mask” because of the damage he sustained. Now, his story serves as a warning to others.
When Marcus Kizaza arrived home one day, he was greeted by his neighbor’s dogs. The canines were wagging their tales on Marcus’s porch as his family watched from inside, using their Ring doorbell camera. “Hi, dog. Aw, he’s so cute,” Marcus’s daughter is heard saying in the video. Believing the dogs were friendly, Marcus patted them on the head as they leaped up at him in his driveway. Then, things took a sudden and terrifying turn.
Without any provocation, the dogs launched a frenzied attack against the Texas man. Just feet from the front door of his Fort Worth home, Marcus was suddenly at the mercy of his neighbor’s “bloodthirsty pit bulls,” according to Daily Mail. Marcus tried to escape by running down the street, screaming out to his wife for help as the pit bulls mauled his face, legs, and hand. Eventually, he jumped on another neighbor’s pickup truck in an attempt to evade the animals, but the damage was already done.
“He was yelling really loud and the dogs were really vicious,” recalled witness Bianca Mireles, according to The Sun. “We realized that there was part of his nose under our car.”
Sadly, part of Marcus’s nose had been ripped off during the vicious attack by his neighbor’s pit bulls and fallen under his neighbor’s vehicle as he remained at the mercy of the aminals, waiting for help on the roof of the truck. When first responders arrived at the scene, one of the dogs continued to prowl around the pickup as paramedics began treating an injured Marcus.
As seen in the video captured by witness Bianca Mireles, who called 911 and recorded the aftermath of the attack, one of the dogs even lunged at a firefighter, who was forced to fend off the raging animal with a pole, The Sun reported.
“The dogs were just trying to attack whoever was around,” Bianca said. “So, if you were on the ground, they were going to attack you.”
Eventually, a police officer rammed one of the dogs with his patrol car and killed it. The other dog was captured by animal control officers.
“I just saw afterward them taking the (dead) dog away in a big red bag and then them spraying the ground with water,” Bianca recalled. “We’d like to know who they belong to and hopefully, you know, they can face charges,” she added.
After the attack, Marcus was transferred to a hospital, where he spent more than a week undergoing multiple surgeries to reattach his nose before being released to continue recovering from the painful injuries at home. Even after multiple surgeries, Marcus was still disfigured and in pain. In addition to the physical damage done, he also faced mental anguish, admitting that he was too embarrassed to leave the house without a face mask.
“I can’t speak a lot,” Marcus told a local news station. “I don’t just want people to just see this, you know?” he said, referring to the extensive injuries to his face.
Marcus’s physical and mental health wasn’t the only thing that took a hit from the vicious attack. His financial well-being was also damaged as he had been unable to work in the weeks immediately following the attack while racking up medical bills. In hopes of appealing to the public and getting some help with the medical bills, his family started a GoFundMe as they were desperate to make ends meet, according to Marcus’s wife Leslie.
“We still have the mortgage to pay. We still have kids to feed. So, that’s why I need to know where is the dog’s owner,” Leslie said.
According to Fort Worth police, two citations for unrestrained dogs were issued to the owner, but that isn’t enough, according to family attorney Cole McNeal. Instead, McNeal was reportedly pushing for police to file criminal charges, which could be followed by a civil lawsuit.
“We want to gather all the information and make sure that the proper individuals are included,” McNeal said. “The person that owns the house, the person that leases the house, individuals that live there, the dog owners.”
Since so many people are eager to blame the owners rather than the breed, it would seem that criminal charges against owners whose dogs cause bodily injury to an innocent person would be a reasonable step in curtailing some of these attacks that seem to flood the news, especially if the animal was unrestrained and on another’s property when the attack unfolded.
In this case, Marcus Kizaza was actually lucky. He lost his nose but kept his life. The same can’t be said for others who have faced similar attacks, which brings us to our final thought: Don’t assume a dog with a wagging tale is “friendly,” especially if it’s a pit bull. While that might enrage those who love the breed, the fact remains that too many people have been disfigured or lost their life when pit bulls attack. As the attorney suggested, it’s time owners are held responsible to the fullest extent of the law — maybe then, they will reconsider what they keep as pets and how well they restrain them.