A St. John’s family victimized by a knife-wielding random attacker last week has a hero in their midst—the family dog.
On July 22 at about 10:30 p.m., a man broke into three houses on Empire Avenue west including Stephanie Penney’s. Her two boys—ages 10 and 15—were home with her with the youngest right in the line of the attacker. That’s when Gibson, a 10-year-old part Rottweiler, jumped into action and confronted the intruder. The man stabbed him in the head, blood going everywhere.
Stephanie shudders to think what might have happened had it not been for the dog. She’s certain that 10-year-old Lucas, who was sitting on an exercise ball and chatting with his friends playing Fortnite, would have gotten the full force of the attacker.
The interruption gave the family precious seconds to get out of the house and hide in the backyard until the intruder, who also went outside in the backyard near them, left.
The dog had a deep cut that penetrated the skull but did not go all the way through. Gibson is expected to fully recover.
Penney says an RNC officer remained with the dog for about an hour applying bandages and helping to slow the bleeding until it could get medical attention.
That was one of three break-ins committed within a short time of each other that night. The RNC arrested a suspect a short time later and charged him with all three.