A tragic incident occurred on Friday afternoon in San Antonio when Ramon Najera and his wife Juanita Najara, 74, were attacked by a pack of dogs as they were returning to their car after trying to get clothes tailored by a seamstress.
Ramon was an Air Force veteran who was on dialysis, but he was determined to return to his job in security and needed his work clothes adjusted.
Authorities said the couple was attacked by the dogs after the person they were meeting wasn’t home and they were returning to their vehicle.
Juanita saw the dogs rush her husband and tried to help, but the dogs turned on her. Ramon did everything he could do to hold the dogs back and save his wife, but unfortunately, he lost his own life in the process.
A bystander tried to help by spraying the dogs with a hose and using a rake to fight them off, but the good Samaritan was also attacked and injured by the dogs.
Three firefighters arrived and used pickaxes and pike poles to fight off the dogs, during which time the fire captain was also attacked and injured.
The dogs were later euthanized, along with a third dog owned by Christian Alexander Moreno. Moreno was arrested and now faces two felony charges of attack by a dangerous dog causing death and injury to an elderly individual and is being held on a $125,000 bond.
Ramon’s stepson Carlos Gomez and grandson Trevor Najera posted emotional messages on social media, expressing their shock and grief at the tragedy.
Trevor Najera also asked people to help to cover the cost of the funeral and memorial services for his stepfather. So far, the family has raised over $20,000 of their original $10,000 goal.
Sadly, this was not the first time the dogs had been involved in a violent incident, and neighbors had made multiple calls about the dogs being out of control and they were taken away from Moreno.
Moreno, however, got them back and allegedly followed the conditions of the dogs’ return, including sterilization, tethering in the yard, and securing the dogs with harnesses, but that was clearly not enough.
Police said that Moreno’s wife said she had also noticed the dogs becoming more aggressive and asked Moreno to return them to Animal Care Services, but he refused.
KSAT said, according to the affidavit, she was “scared of the dogs since they were sterilized” claiming they became “more aggressive,” after the procedure, the affidavit said.