MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. (WSVN) \u2014 A St. Petersburg Police officer is being celebrated for his bravery quick thinking when a dog attacked a baby in his neighborhood.<\/p>\n
Dale Johnson was getting ready for work as a St. Petersburg Police officer Saturday morning when he heard screams a few houses down from his home near Sarasota.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most bloodcurdling screams I\u2019ve probably ever heard,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cI peered over the fence again, and I could see a Rottweiler shaking what appeared to be a small child in its mouth. I put on a pair of pants, jumped the fence and proceeded to the houses where the original screaming was coming from.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to the Manatee County Sheriff\u2019s Office, a woman was in her backyard with her puppy on a leash when the next-door neighbor\u2019s unrestrained Rottweiler charged into her yard and attacked the puppy.<\/p>\n
The woman was holding her 2-month-old boy, but as she got the puppy inside the dog jumped up and bit the baby\u2019s right leg when she tried to close the door.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe owner of the dog was unable to, you know, get the dog to relinquish his mouth from the baby\u2019s leg and that\u2019s when I basically tackled the Rottweiler to the ground, held him in place, began choking him and used my two fingers to stick them down the nostril of the dog\u2019s nose,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cIt causes an involuntary almost choking or coughing, a brief hesitation, just enough to allow me to kind of get my hands in place to give a little movement where I can get the leg removed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson said the mother took the baby inside, where he and his wife consoled her and the 2-month-old.<\/p>\n
The dog\u2019s owner was able to get it back to his home.<\/p>\n
The sheriff\u2019s office said the baby needed stitches and was rushed to the hospital by first responders.<\/p>\n
Johnson said he was just in the right place at the right time, and he knew just what to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy brother was attacked by a German shepherd when we were small, and so I remember doing research or my parents doing research and kind of relaying that to me. I read about it as a law enforcement officer,\u201d said Johnson.<\/p>\n
Luckily, the officer wasn\u2019t seriously hurt.<\/p>\n
The dog\u2019s owner is cooperating with animal welfare as they investigate the incident.<\/p>\n
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