ELDERLY WOMAN KILLED BY COKED-UP PITT BULLS

By Bob Walsh

 

Officers had responded to a report that Echo and Apollo had ingested Adam Withers’ cocaine weeks before the attack.   

A 73-year old Ohio woman was killed back in October when two pitt bulls loaded on cocaine attacked her.  The woman, JoAnn Echelbarger, was gardening near her Ashton condominium  when the two dogs, Echo and Apollo, attacked her.  Mrs. Echelbarger's husband, who is suffering from dementia, was present in a wheel chair but could do nothing to stop the attack.

 

 

Jo Ann Echelbarger was killed by her neighbor’s pit bulls as her wheelchair-bouned husband, Stanley, watched helplessly.

 

The dogs continued their attack even after the cops showed up and fired on them. 

Investigation showed that the dogs were both loaded on cocaine. 

The dogs owners, Adam Withers and his mother, Susan, were both convicted of involuntary manslaughter last month in connection with the death. 

The family of Mrs. Echelbarger has just launched a civil suit against the condominium association and the county's Dog Warden (animal control) based on alleged negligence.  The suit mentions an incident two weeks before the fatal attack and an order to the owners to remove the dogs, which was ignored. 

The wrongful death suit seeks compensatory damages exceeding $25,000 and unspecified punitive damages.