For the first time, prosecutors in Marion County are considering filing charges of assault with a deadly weapon – and the deadly weapon is a dog.
“I was robbed. I was jumped and bit by a dog,” said Terri Henry, who was attacked Monday in the 3100 block of West Michigan.
Henry doesn’t want you to see her face because of her black eye. But that’s not the worst of her injuries after what Henry and Indianapolis Metro Police say happened to the 28-year-old at a west side bus top Monday afternoon.
“I was at the bus stop. Waiting on the bus to go home,” said Henry.
That’s when Henry says her ex-roommate Andrew Townsend and his girlfriend Carley Woodward pulled up in a truck, jumped out and started attacking her, and not just with their fists. They brought out a pit bull.
“He was telling the dog, ‘get her, get her,’” said Henry. “At first the dog scratched me on my lower back. And then he bit me.”
Neighbors who live around the bus stop didn’t want to go on camera, but told us they saw it all. They said they wanted to help Henry but they couldn’t get near her without putting themselves in harm’s way.
“The people were like, ‘let me help her. Get the dog. Get the dog.’ He was like, ‘No, get away. I’m going to stick the dog on you.’ I was like, ‘oh my God,’” said Henry.
“Instead of using a gun, they used their pit bull,” said David Wyser, Marion County Chief Trial Deputy.
Prosecutors are calling that dog a deadly weapon, which makes the robbery and battery charges felonies. It’s a first.
“We’re alleging that this pit bull was used in lieu of say, for example, a knife or a gun and it becomes a deadly weapon under the statute,” said Wyser.
Wyser says alleging the dog was a deadly weapon isn’t a blanket condemnation of the pit bull breed.
“I don’t think the dog is that way on its own. I think the owners are the ones that make them more aggressive,” Wyser said.
Terri Henry says this one certainly was, and she’s got the injuries to prove it.
Townsend and Woodward are being held at the Marion County Jail. Investigators say they haven’t been able to locate the dog.