Minneapolis, Minnesota – A woman is calling her dog a hero after the dog stopped a hammer-wielding man who broke into her home on September 5 and repeatedly struck her in the head with the tool. As reported by Local 12 News, Maria Grant’s 80-pound pit bull, Athena, attacked Damonte Latrentece Richardson, 36, after he struck her in the head with a hammer and then attempted to run upstairs where her children were sleeping.
Grant told WCCO News, “He’s just hitting me over the head with a hammer, and all I’m feeling is this. The hits and then the waves of blood coming down my face and he didn’t stop it.”
Grant tried to fight the man as he tried to go upstairs and that’s when she says Athena joined the fray, biting Richardson’s legs and stopping him from making his way to her kids. She tells the news agency, “I’m grateful she was there and I couldn’t. I don’t think I’d be here without her. I think I’ll be laying over there on the floor.”
Police arrested Richardson on a charge of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon, but he was released from custody just 36 hours later. Grant tells the agency, “I feel like they failed me and I feel like they won’t find him and it’ll take months for them to find him and then by that time he probably would have did something else to somebody else.”
Grant knew her attacker. The man had walked her dog in the past and she said on the day of the attack, he showed up at her door wearing a wig and carrying a hammer.
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