It was nothing but “instinct” for a 33-year-old Tarentum man who jumped in to try to stop a pit bull attack in the borough on Halloween.
Shawn Flynn Jr. was visiting his friend at her East Seventh Avenue home on Halloween when he looked out the window and saw three pit bulls — two adults and a puppy — had broken through a screen door from a nearby home and began attacking people.
“It was getting so bad — if someone doesn’t do something, (he was) going to get hurt real bad,” Flynn said.
Three people — Flynn, Michael Shutack and Faith Valasek — were injured from the attack that took place in the area of Tarentum’s East Sixth and Seventh avenues, and were taken to area hospitals.
Police on Friday charged Brandon Jerome Baynes, 36, with three counts each of several charges, including animal neglect, and most of which are summary offenses. One charge, recklessly endangering another person, is a misdemeanor. Online court documents did not list an attorney for Baynes.
Baynes and a woman were identified by police as the dogs’ owners; the woman has not been charged.
Witnesses told police that Flynn’s intervention likely saved Shutack’s life.
“That made me feel really good,” Flynn said. “I’m trying to stay humble about it, but it does make me feel good about that. I’m glad I did it regardless, but it’s still nice to know that.”
Flynn said he had “no idea” what prompted him to spring into action to help Shutack other than that the situation was escalating.
The men didn’t know each other before the attack and haven’t met since.
Flynn said all he remembers from that evening is running outside and grabbing an old carpet that was lying outside on a trash can.
He ran over to Shutack — who had three dogs on him — and began hitting the pit bulls with the carpet.
“I was trying to use it to protect myself like a bull fighter, but obviously that didn’t work out too well,” Flynn said.
Flynn suffered deep wounds to his left hand, arms, his right wrist and thighs, he said. Cuts to his left hand required stitches.
He was able to get back to his friend, Joyce Hernandez’s, home where she dragged him up the porch steps to safety inside, he said. She tied a T-shirt around his arm to stop the bleeding and another neighbor gave first aid. An ambulance took him to Allegheny Valley Hospital in Harrison.
“I didn’t think too much about the situation,” Flynn said. “It was instinct.”
Flynn said Saturday that he was doing better but still sore from the attack.
Shutack recalls attack
Shutack, 60, had similar remarks Saturday.
“It’s coming along as good as can be expected, but when you’re bitten all the way to the bone, it’s going to take a while,” he said.
Just before 6 p.m. on Halloween, Shutack was getting children to safety before he was mauled by the dogs. He had lacerations and puncture wounds to his neck, cheek, chin, arms, hands, knees and heels.
His left leg looks “riddled with bullet holes,” he said, but it’s really dog bites.
“Their teeth went up inside the arches of my feet,” he said.
Valasek had severe wounds to her forearms.
All three victims needed to get a rabies shot because the dogs were not vaccinated.
Shutack has been unable to return to work since the incident. He is slowly making progress: he is now able to close his hand and also can get up without using a cane.
“Once that heals, I know my own body and I know when I can go back to work,” Shutack said. “But it’s going to take a while.”
Flynn said he thought the charges filed in the case were “fair.”
Shutack said Tarentum Police are doing their best with the investigation and that he wants justice. A preliminary hearing is scheduled Dec. 18 at District Judge Carolyn S. Bengel’s courtroom in Brackenridge.
“I want it 100% to the fullest extent of the law,” Shutack said.
“I want justice.”