A woman was scratched and bitten by two pit bulls as she was taking out the garbage behind her home in the Banneker Ridge development, just off Minnesota Avenue in Southeast D.C.
The woman suffered injuries to her face and hands, but is expected to be OK.
D.C. police say the dogs were not on leashes.
“I was in the house and when I came out, it was the end of the dogs mauling her,” neighbor Clinton Brown told NBC Washington. “When I was walking down to talk to the police, the dogs came toward the officers, and that’s when the officers shot them.”
NBC Washington said police investigating the mauling got a search warrant and found evidence of a commercial marijuana operation inside the home. A D.C. Fire hazardous materials unit was called and they removed several large butane tanks and boxes of other evidence from the home.
Residents in the development’s homeowner’s association had been trying to evict the current homeowners, though the attempts were unsuccessful.
Sonya Marchi, with the association, said the dogs have been allowed to run free in the neighborhood by the occupants.
“They leave the front door open so that the dogs can jump over a childproof gate,” said Marchi.
Earlier in the day, the dogs had cornered a teen who was walking the family dog, according to the surveillance video provided to NBC Washington.
Police had been called to the home in October after someone was attacked by a pit bull — the dog was shot by police.
Watch NBC Washington’s report:
