‘There Was Blood Everywhere’: Neighbor Describes Dogs Mauling a Woman in Her North Carolina Yard After They Spilled From a U-Haul

A pack of seven dogs spilled out of a U-Haul and attacked multiple people in a Charlotte neighborhood last week, including a woman right in front of her home. According to Daily Mail, Hayley Wright, 30, suffered severe lacerations and was hospitalized, while three other injured residents were treated at the scene.

Neighbor Joseph Correa said he heard cries for help and grabbed a shovel to fend off the dogs. “Just hearing her like that just gets me upset about it, because they’re our friends. We were very close to them,” he told WBTV. He said he shouted for Wright to get up and run inside while her partner helped her. “He picked her up and drug her inside. There was blood everywhere,” Correa said.

Angela Johnson was taking out her recycling when she heard the screams and called 911, then became a target herself. “One of the dogs grabbed her by her arm and chased me down. I was on the ground. Next thing I know, he’s gnawing at my leg,” she told WBTV. Johnson needed a rabies shot and five stitches, and said she’d never seen the dogs in the neighborhood before.

The Owner Still Hasn’t Been Identified

The attack happened the morning of August 27 on Claiborne Woods Road. Surveillance video from four houses down showed several dogs tumbling out of a U-Haul minutes before the mauling. Separate home footage captured what sounded like a gunshot and screaming as a woman fought off the pack in her yard. Investigators are still working to confirm whether these were the same dogs, and the owner has not been identified. Officials estimated the dogs, described as pit bull-type, were around a year old.

A Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s deputy conducting an eviction on the same street encountered the attack, according to a statement the sheriff’s office gave the outlet. The deputy first tried to use a taser on one of the dogs, and after that failed, fatally shot it. “Shortly after, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) and Animal Care and Control arrived on scene, capturing all dogs involved in the attack,” the sheriff’s office said.

North Carolina law actually permits what the deputy did. Under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 67-14, any person may lawfully kill a dog that is attacking, and that protection has long been applied to dogs behaving dangerously toward people or livestock, not just the “mad dog” language the statute still uses. Once the owner is identified, the legal exposure could be significant. North Carolina law treats dog bite cases differently depending on the dog’s history.

Under the state’s “one bite” approach, an owner generally isn’t liable for a first attack unless they knew or should have known the dog was dangerous. But if a dog is formally classified as a “dangerous dog” under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 67-4.1, based on factors like inflicting a bite that caused broken bones, disfiguring lacerations, or hospitalization, the owner becomes strictly liable for any resulting injuries under § 67-4.4. That means the victims wouldn’t need to prove the owner knew about any prior aggression.

An owner can also face criminal charges. State law makes it a misdemeanor for an owner of a dangerous dog to allow it to attack someone and cause injuries requiring more than $100 in medical treatment. That threshold this case would clearly exceed, given Wright’s hospitalization and Johnson’s stitches and rabies shot.

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