An investigative team, which included Best Friends animal expert Sherry Woodard and aggression and forensics specialist Jim Crosby, went to Texas recently to assist police in determining why a pit bull attacked and killed a man.
By Cathy Scott, Best Friends StaffWhat Woodard and Crosby learned was not what they expected to find. Both called the case an unfortunate chain of events and circumstances that led to the death of a man.
The two interviewed witnesses and walked through the crime scene. “We were given unlimited access by the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department,” said Crosby, who lives in Jacksonville, Florida.
The facts of the case as Crosby and Woodard learned them are based upon their investigation and in-depth interviews with witnesses as well as input from law enforcement and animal control.
It turns out the victim, 41-year-old David "Ted" McCurry, had intravenously taken a street drug while sitting in a car with a 19-year-old woman in front of the dog owner’s house on Saturday, October 28, just before greeting the dog.
The dog’s guardian, Firas Beseisso, is mentally and emotionally challenged and his younger brother takes care of him, Woodard said. It was the first time the victim had been to the house in Conroe, Texas, and the first time he had met the dog.
The dog, a young pit bull named Drix (who was also called Dax), regularly greeted visitors to the house, usually young people in their 20s, by humping their legs. “Drix was used to being pushed away,” Woodard said. “The dog tolerated people pushing him off.”
But this time it was different.
When Drix ran out of the house to meet the new person, “something caused the dog to go for the man,” Woodard said. “It was all about that man and very personal to him. He had just shot drugs with needles. He was high.”
On top of that, Drix was protective because of his owner’s disability, and the dog slept each night on his owner’s chest.
The bottom line, Crosby said, “is the dog was looking out for the owner and making the decisions because (his owner) was unable to. The dog was taking care of the human.”
For some reason, Crosby said, “the dog perceived this visitor -- who had shot up some sort of intravenous drug shortly before he arrived and had needles and some other drugs on him -- as a threat and it set this dog off. The dog’s response was over the top.”
Drix did not go after the woman who was with McCurry. The dog walked up to her and started to hump her leg, but he did not attack her. Instead, he was focused on McCurry. The dog’s guardian was able to pull the dog away a couple times but was unable to hold onto him because the dog was not wearing a collar and was not on a leash.
Also, Woodard pointed out, Drix was not neutered and had never been vaccinated.
“The dog’s owner is developmentally impaired, with poor decision-making skills and is illiterate,” she said.
Also, Beseisso served two years in prison on a narcotics-related conviction, Crosby said. All involved – witnesses, the owner, and the victim – have drug-related criminal records.
Another possible contributor to the attack was that Drix was regularly given drugs, both Crosby and Woodard said. The two drew blood from Drix to be tested for traces of narcotics in his system. “Dogs end up in situations where once again it’s stupid human behavior,” Woodard said. The results of the test were not yet known.
To evaluate Drix, Crosby went into the dog’s run at the sheriff’s department, where he was being quarantined. Drix has since been put down by an order of the court.
“Much to the amazement of the police, I was able to put a lead on Drix without any problem,” Crosby said.
While two trainers, armed with Taser stun guns and double poles, as well as an officer with a loaded tranquilizer gun and armed sheriff’s deputies, stood ready, Drix walked into the run and allowed Crosby to approach him.
“He was afraid of me,” Crosby said, “but he let me pet him.”
Then Crosby tried to antagonize the dog, as part of his evaluation. “I tried pushing his buttons,” he said. “He did not want to confront me. Had I not been told this dog had killed someone, I would not have been that concerned walking up to this dog. He didn’t show any aggression toward me.”
Crosby said he would be doing forensics testing of samples of the dog’s brain as part of his investigation.
The district attorney’s office in Montgomery County is expected to hand over the case to a grand jury to see whether criminal charges should be filed against Beseisso. If convicted, he faces one year in jail and a $4,000 fine.
But Crosby said it’s a tough case to prosecute. “It’s going to be very difficult to hold (the owner) responsible for much of it, because of his diminished mental capacity,” he said. “He’s psychologically and mentally challenged.”
Pictured: Forensics Investigator Jim Crosby evaluates Drix.Photo by Sherry Woodard.
Sherry Woodard