Two dogs shot after attacking man

ELKHART, Ind. -- Two dogs viciously attacked a man Christmas Day and he is still recovering in the hospital.

It all started around 3 p.m. on Christmas Day on Berry Street in Elkhart when next door neighbor, Phillip Baldwin "all of a sudden I heard a guy yell help!”

So Baldwin went to his garage window and looked out, "and i saw him on the ground and the dogs were on top of him.”

But this didn't seem strange because the Baldwin;'s have seen and heard the two pit bull dogs, Thumper and Twilight, since the Millers moved in next door about 2 years ago.

Neighbor Linda Baldwin says, “Jodah always kept the dogs under control when he was outside with them. So I never really feared.”
Confused and concerned, Baldwin looked closer and says, “the way that the dogs were attacking him and biting at him I saw all the blood up by the neck. If we don’t get help to him quick he isn’t going to make it.”

So Phillip called in to Linda who called 9-1-1 while he went to tell the dogs owners next door. 

The Baldwins say police arrived quickly and immediately tried to get to the victim, police identified as 43-year-old, Billy Shoemaker.

However, the police report and neighbors say the officer couldn’t get to Shoemaker to administer first aid. And the officers next move was unforgettable.

Linda Baldwin says, "one of the dogs charged the deputy and he ended up firing four rounds into the dog and killed him.”

Then 11-year-old, Nikolai Miller almost verbatim says, “the cops put down Thumper, he charged at them. And twilight ran into the woods.”

After the dogs were mot a threat, officials took Shoemaker to Elkhart General Hospital, where he is still healing after receiving 150 stitches and brother, Jodah Miller, says he is hoping to be released in 3 days.

But that doesn’t mean everything will be back to normal.

Nikolai Miller says, “I’m just sad about Thumper and I just hope that twilight can come back.”

Twilight, the dog that ran into the woods, came home late Christmas night and was then put under the custody of the Elkhart Humane Society for the next 10 days, then owners can either pick her up or leave her to be euthanized.

And executive director Rob Laroy, says bite cases happen about once a month—but many times the owners do not come in and “most of the time when they realize the fees involved in being able to keep a dangerous animal the animal is surrendered.”

The owner Jodah Miller is still confused on what got into his dogs— because the victim Shoemaker knows and lives with the dogs. Miller said he got into a drunken altercation last week with twilight, but still wouldn’t have ever expected this.

"If it was the little one i figured he maybe was still mad about getting punished but the big one he’s never had any issues with him so i have no idea why unless he was horse playing with him and it went overboard i don’t know.”