On Monday, June 20, Jocelyn Winfrey was walking with a friend, Dr. Hamilton Hicks, when they entered his yard on Ella Grasso Boulevard and tried to enter the home. At that point, Hicks' two bulldogs attacked.
A neighbor heard the screams and called 911, though she did not witness the attack first-hand.
Winfrey, 53, lost her eyes and had a leg amputated while being treated at the hospital, but unfortunately on Monday, June 27 she succumbed to her injuries.
According to information provided by New Haven's 911 call center, the first 911 call from a woman across the street came in at 7:46 p.m.
AMR ambulance was alerted to the possible dog attack at 7:48 p.m., and departed less than a minute later. An AMR ambulance arrived on scene at 7:52 p.m., and Winfrey arrived at Yale-New Haven around 8:04 p.m., 18 minutes after the first 911 call was made.
Meanwhile, police had the call routed to a radio holding screen at 7:48 p.m., and the call was dispatched to a police unit at 8 p.m., about 14 minutes after the first 911 call came in.
Winfrey lived for a week before she died. A GoFundMe page has been set up by a friend of the Winfrey family to help pay for funeral expenses.
"My next-door neighbor started yelling, saying 'the dog is attacking a female across the street,'" said Wingate. Neighbors ran over to help, and neighborhood kids threw rocks at the dog to try and stop it. "We were jumping over, throwing rocks at the pit bulls as the pit bulls were just basically eating her up."
According to Animal Control, the dogs will be euthanized on July 6, after a mandatory two-week quarantine period.
"Usually on regular dog bites we give the animals every opportunity, but because of the seriousness of this injury, we have to do what we have to do," New Haven Animal Control Officer Joseph Manganiello told FOX 61 last Wednesday.
The owner of the dogs, Hicks, who works at the Yale School of Medicine, was charged with misdemeanor possession charges because he had crack cocaine, but he is not being charged in relation to the dog attack.
