Jocelyn Winfrey (53) – New Haven, CT – Killed By 2 Pit Bull Type Dogs While Visiting Friend (6/27/16)


Dog-Mauling Victim Dies

Jocelyn Winfrey died at Yale-New Haven Hospital Monday morning with her mother beside her bed one week after two dogs ripped apart her body.

Doctors stopped life support for Winfrey, who was in a medically induced coma, according to Assistant Police Chief Anthony Campbell.

The attack on Winfrey took place last Monday evening at a home on Ella Grasso Boulevard owned by a 37-year-old Yale psychiatric intern.

Winfrey — who was 53 years old, grew up at the Church Street South housing complex, and attended Lee High School — was accompanying the man in his car. They were smoking crack, according to police.

They arrived home. The man opened the door to his house. His two dogs set upon Winfrey, ripping apart her leg, her face, and her arms. Neighborhood kids rushed over and climbed a fence to throw large rocks and a trash can to try to get the dogs away. The homeowner tried to fend off the dogs, but they bit him, too. For days the vicious attack would haunt emergency workers and police officers who saw it.

By the time an ambulance crew arrived, the main attacking dog retreated. Winfrey stopped breathing twice on the way to Yale-New Haven Hospital. Doctors operated on her for days, amputating a leg. She had lost her eyes and skin all over her body. She spent the week in a coma until the decision was made to end life support.

Doctors described the injuries as even worse than those of a Stamford woman who was attacked by a chimpanzee in 2009.

Police charged the man with misdemeanor offenses. He hired one of the city’s top criminal defense attorneys, Willie Dow. But it appears Dow won’t need to defend him against any more serious criminal charges.

Assistant Chief Campbell said that after reviewing the case with the state’s attorney’s office, police don’t see a basis for further charges.

“It’s not like the man used the dogs as weapons,” Campbell said. “It was a tragic accident.”

Police initially described the dogs as pit bulls. It turns out they are American bulldog mixes, according to city Animal Control Officer Joseph Maganiello. The dogs were licensed and were up to date on their shots, he said. The owner had bought them in Florida and then moved to New Haven with them.

Read more: http://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/archives/entry/dog-mauling_victim_dies/


New Haven dog attack neighbors speak out after death of victim

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — What happened in the area of a home on Ella T. Grasso Boulevard more than a week ago still has the neighborhood shaken up. It was there 53-year-old Jocelyn Winfrey of New Haven came to visit a man named Hamilton Hicks.

On the property Hicks’ two American Bulldog mixes brutally attacked Winfrey and Hicks. Winfrey’s injuries were so extensive she passed away on Monday. Hicks is expected to recover.

Related Content: New Haven woman dies after being attacked by two dogs

“A lot of people say they’re traumatized from seeing her (Winfrey), how her face looked,” said neighbor Lourdes Torres. “It’s really scary, I’m just glad my kids were not able to see that too.”

Officials with Animal Control tell News 8 they had never been to the home before. In fact, some neighbors, like Lourdes Torres, who lives directly across the street, say they didn’t even know Hicks had dogs.

“We never heard the dogs bark,” said Torres.

The two dogs responsible for Winfrey’s death are currently in the possession of New Haven Animal Control.

Related Content: New Haven dogs involved in lethal mauling will be euthanized

Read full story: http://wtnh.com/2016/06/28/new-haven-dog-attack-neighbors-speak-out-after-death-of-victim/


New Haven woman remains in extremely grave condition 3 days after dog attack

NEW HAVEN — Police have arrested a dog owner on drug charges three days after his dogs viciously attacked a woman.

New Haven Assistant Police Chief Anthony Campbell says that Jocelyn Winfrey, 53, remains in a medically-induced coma, and extremely grave condition after two dogs attacked her. She’s had her leg amputated and has lost her eyes–not just her eyesight, as previously reported–and will likely have an arm amputated. It’s unclear if she will survive.

Dr. Hamilton Hicks, who works at the Yale School of Medicine, was charged with misdemeanor possession charges because he had crack cocaine, and police say they could add charges related to the dog attack, especially if Winfrey dies.

Campbell told FOX 61 this is the most gruesome attack he’s seen, and was so bad that officers who tended to her are being offered counseling

On Monday night Winfrey was attacked by Hicks’ two dogs in the yard of a home on Ella Grasso Boulevard. She was with the owner of the two American bulldog mixes when the dogs attacked, and they also turned on their owner.

Winfrey was familiar with the dogs.

Read more: http://fox61.com/2016/06/23/new-haven-woman-remains-in-extremely-grave-condition-3-days-after-pit-bull-attack/


Yale professor whose bulldogs mauled 53-year-old Connecticut mom to death is charged with crack cocaine possession and will lose his dogs – but WON’T face other charges

  • Jocelyn Winfrey was attacked by friend Hamilton Hicks’ dogs on June 20 
  • She lost both eyes, one leg and much of her face, and died a week later.
  • Hicks, of New Haven, Connecticut, had three bags of crack, cops said
  • It’s not known if the previously calm dogs had been affected by the drugs
  • Taking blood would require them to be anesthetized, affecting results
  • The bulldogs have been quarantined and will be put down on July 6
  • And Hicks, a Yale professor, won’t be charged with anything else

The Yale medical professor whose bulldogs mauled a woman so badly that she died a week later has been charged with possession of crack cocaine, but won’t face charges related to the attack.

Jocelyn Winfrey, 53, was visiting friend Hamilton Hicks, a professor at Yale School of Medicine. at his New Haven, Connecticut home on June 20 when his dogs unexpectedly attacked.

Hicks and other building residents couldn’t stop Winfrey from losing her eyes, one leg and much of her face. Cops say when they arrived, they found Hicks in possession of three bags of crack cocaine. 

While she was still hospitalized, police said that if Winfrey succumbed to her wounds they would consider charging Hicks with her death.

But on Tuesday it was confirmed that the dogs were properly registered and vaccinated and there were no prior complaints against them.

And since the police didn’t believe Hicks had been negligent with regard to the attack, he would not be charged.

‘There was not an issue of animal abuse. The dogs were not roaming. From our understanding, of the circumstances, he didn’t use the dogs as a weapon,’ Assistant Chief Campbell said, according to Fox 61.

Trayzon Sherman, who ran to help, said: ‘I seen two dogs just biting on people.’

Witness Peter Pervis added: ‘Chunks of her skin were missing and everything.’

Ms Winfrey was rushed to Yale-New Haven Hospital.

Over the course of the last week, she lost both of her eyes and had a leg amputated as doctors battled to save her life.

A GoFundMe page has been set up by a friend of the Winfrey family to help pay for funeral expenses and had raised $800 as of Tuesday morning.

It is believed Ms Winfrey leaves behind one son, aged 26-years-old.

Read full story: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3664675/Prof-Hamilton-Hicks-Yale-dogs-mauled-Jocelyn-Winfrey-Connecticut-death-charged-crack-cocaine-possession-dogs-won-t-face-charges.html


JOCELYN WINFREY-BOGAN

1962 – 2016 Obituary

WINFREY-BOGAN, JOCELYN Jocelyn was born Dec. 15, 1962 to Janet E. Bogan and the late Charles Winfrey. She departed this life to everlasting life on June 26, 2016. Jocelyn was fortunate to have two fathers, the late Richard O. Bogan, who raised her from the age of two. Jocelyn leaves to cherish her memory, her only son – Tywan R. Samels, loving brother, Richard O. Bogan Jr., a devoted mother, Janet (Andrew) Bogan. She was also close to brother Charles Minchenko. Jocelyn has one granddaughter, Armani Samuels, five sisters, two other brothers, her best friend, Mary Ellen White; also a host of family. A private memorial will be held at a later date.

Published in The New Haven Register on July 26, 2016– See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nhregister/obituary.aspx?pid=180777097#sthash.ULPngYKF.dpuf


2016 Dog Bite Fatality: New Haven Woman Dies After Violent ‘Hannibal Lecter’ Style Mauling by Pit Bull-Type Dogs

DogsBite.org reports

The Soul Searching Begins

What can people like Wingate, and the other witnesses and first responders haunted by images of the attack, do at this time? What can the community do, which recoiled in shock, grief and outrage that such a horrific act could occur in their community with no repercussions? The act was an unprovoked savage attack by two pit bull-type dogs in Hicks’ private fenced-in yard. He was right beside her and could not stop his dogs in a maiming scene matched only by “Hannibal Lecter.”

In 2013, the Connecticut legislature passed a preemption bill barring municipalities from adopting breed-specific laws, including mandatory pit bull sterilization ordinances, which is the very least city officials can do to help protect public safety (Both of Hicks’ dogs were male and at least one was unaltered.). Because the vicious attack occurred on private property, at least in this state, New Haven Police said no criminal charges applied. So, Dr. Hicks’ has no criminal culpability.

The short answer to our question of “what can be done” after Winfrey’s death is “not much.” State legislators intended this result in 2013.

We greatly admire and respect Wingate and hope that his public meeting can lead to concrete results. These results could simply be an honest discussion about bull-baiting and fighting breeds to raise awareness of the gravely disfiguring injuries they inflict. Also how pit bulls and their close relatives “repeatedly” attack their victims and often refuse to stop even after great violence is inflicted upon them. This is why traumatic injuries and eventually death ensued in this case.

Still the soul searching continues. There is no one to hold criminally responsible for this deadly attack due to completely insufficient criminal laws. There are no adequate municipal tools to prevent similar attacks either. Hicks’ can acquire two new “American bulldog-mixes” tomorrow and start this process all over again. A result state legislators also intended in 2013. At the very least, Winfrey’s family should have civil recourse because Connecticut is a solid strict liability state.

Read full story: https://blog.dogsbite.org/2016/06/new-haven-woman-hanging-onto-life-after.html


Why Do We Call Them “Pit Bull Type Dogs?”

We use the term ‘pit bull type dog’ because that is biologically the most accurate term. In order to understand this, you have to look at the biological history of the present day pit bull type dogs. Their history is twofold.

bullpit1-300x198The bulldog: The bull-baiting, bear-baiting, horse-shredding ‘bulldog’ has existed at least since the reign of Richard III in England (1452 – 1485), when watching ‘bulldogs’ slowly torture bulls, bears, horses and other animals to death was considered normal public entertainment. These dogs were also used to hunt wild boar, not only tracking the boar but engaging directly in killing it, and in dogfighting matches where they were pitted against each other in fights to the death. There were no breed clubs to give these dogs fancy names — they were called simply ‘bulldogs’. The term ‘pit bull’ was an American variation on the same theme, referring to any of the pit fighting bulldog types.

Until the late 19th century, the only pedigree that mattered for any bulldog was its fighting pedigree – the list of kills it had committed on some other bulldog in the fighting pit. It wasn’t until early in the 20th century, as dogfighting declined, that the breeders of these dogs sought other ways to sell them. They turned to the new kennel clubs, which had been established to cater to the upper class hobby of breeding dogs for shows. After much lobbying, the 1930s saw the registration and re-branding of the pit fighting bulldogs by various kennel clubs, always with a name intended to hide the type’s bloody history (eg, changing this molosser’s name from bulldog to ‘Staffordshire terrier’). Since that first deception, many new breed clubs have arisen, dedicated to producing slight physical variation in the fighting bulldog so as to claim a new pit bull type ‘breed’ all their own (eg, American Bully, Pit Bull XXL, Olde English Bulldogge, American Bulldog).

All of these dogs in fact come from the same limited gene pool, all of them retaining both the physical and the behavioral traits that have always typified the fighting bulldog. Pasting a new ‘breed’ label on yet another slight variation of the pit fighting bulldog does not change this fact.

Learn more: https://www.daxtonsfriends.com/why-do-we-call-them-pit-bull-type-dogs/


Tyler Trammell-Huston (9) – Linda, CA – Killed By Sister’s 3 Pit Bulls After She Left Him Alone With The Dogs (1/3/16) https://www.daxtonsfriends.com/2016/01/tyler-trammell-huston-fatal-pit-bull-attack-linda-ca/

 

Payton Sawyers (1) – Independence, VA – Killed By Pit Bull-Mix While Under Care Of Babysitters (1/8/16) https://www.daxtonsfriends.com/2016/01/payton-sawyers-independence-virginia-fatal-pit-bull-attack/

 

Talen Nathan West (7) – Lumberton, NC – Killed By Neighbor’s Pit Bull While Playing In The Woods With His Brother (1/24/16) https://www.daxtonsfriends.com/2016/01/talen-nathan-west-lumberton-north-carolina-fatal-pit-bull-attack/

 

Aiden Grim-Morelli (3 days) – Youngstown, OH – Killed By Family “Mix-breed Shepherd” When Left In A Laundry Basket (2/8/16) https://www.daxtonsfriends.com/2016/02/aiden-grim-morelli-youngstown-ohio-shepherd-death/

 

Suzanne Story (36) – Hertford, NC – Killed By A Pit Bull-Mix She Adopted 2 Weeks Earlier (2/10/16) https://www.daxtonsfriends.com/2016/02/suzanne-story-hertford-north-carolina-fatal-pit-bull-attack/

 

Gladys Alexander (92) – Olympia, WA – Killed By Her Neighbor’s 4 Pit Bull-Mixes While Delivering Newspaper (3/8/16) https://www.daxtonsfriends.com/2016/03/gladys-alexander-olympia-wa-pit-bull-mix-fatal-dog-attack/

 

Bessie Flowers (86) – Charlotte, NC – Killed By Her Daughter’s 2 Pit Bulls While Visiting (3/28/16) https://www.daxtonsfriends.com/2016/03/bessie-flowers-charlotte-north-carolina-fatal-pit-bull-attack/

 

Sonda Dyan Tyson (66) – Leesburg, FL – Killed By Her Own Pit Bull-Bullmastiff mix (3/31/16) https://www.daxtonsfriends.com/2016/03/sonda-dyan-tyson-fatal-pit-bull-attack/

 

Valente Lopez Aguirre (58) – Fresno County, CA – Killed By Pack Of Dogs (4/14/16) https://www.daxtonsfriends.com/2016/04/valente-lopez-aguirre-fresno-county-ca-robert-simonian/

 

Sebastian Caban (3 days) – San Diego, CA – Killed By The Family Pit Bull-Mix While Lying In Bed With His Parents (4/21/16) https://www.daxtonsfriends.com/2016/04/sebastian-caban-san-diego-ca-fatal-pit-bull-attack-mira-mesa/

 

Manuel Mejia (49) – Homestead, FL – Killed By 1 Pit Bull Type & 9 Belgian Malinois-Bulldog Mixes While Farming (4/24/16) https://www.daxtonsfriends.com/2016/04/manuel-mejia-homestead-florida-fatal-dog-attack-2016/

 

Adonis Reddick (45) – St. Louis County, MO – Killed By His Own Pit Bull (5/9/16) https://www.daxtonsfriends.com/2016/05/adonis-reddick-st-louis-fatal-pit-bull-attack/

 

Antoinette Brown (52) – Dallas, TX – Killed By A Pack Of 4 Pit Bull-Mixes, Rottweiler, Shepherd & Doberman-Mixes (5/9/16) https://www.daxtonsfriends.com/2016/05/antoinette-brown-dallas-texas-fatal-dog-attack/

 

Earl Stephens Jr. (43) – Stockton, CA – Killed By 3 Pit Bulls While Visiting A Friend – (6/4/16) https://www.daxtonsfriends.com/2016/06/earl-stephens-jr-stockton-ca-fatal-pit-bull-attack/

 

Hunter Bragg (7) – Corinna, ME – Killed By A Pit Bull While Playing In Father’s Yard (6/4/16) https://www.daxtonsfriends.com/2016/06/hunter-bragg-corinna-maine-fatal-pit-bull-attack/

 

Erin McCleskey (36) – Manor, TX – Killed By Pack Of Dogs While Serving Papers (6/15/16) https://www.daxtonsfriends.com/2016/06/erin-mccleskey-36-manor-texas-dog-bite-related-fatality/

 

Jocelyn Winfrey (53) – New Haven, CT – Killed By 2 Pit Bull Type Dogs While Visiting Friend (6/27/16) https://www.daxtonsfriends.com/2016/06/jocelyn-winfrey-hamilton-hicks-new-haven-ct-fatal-pit-bull-attack/

 

Susie Kirby (3-days) – Fresno, CA – Killed By The Family’s 2 Pit Bull/Shar Pei Mixes (6/27/16) https://www.daxtonsfriends.com/2016/06/susie-kirby-fresno-california-fatal-pit-bull-shar-pei-dog-attack/

 

Kayden Begay (3) – Navajo Nation Reservation, AZ – Killed By The Neighbor’s 5 Pit Bulls (7/14/16) https://www.daxtonsfriends.com/2016/07/kayden-begay-navajo-nation-reservation-az-fatal-pit-bull-attack/

 

Elizabeth Rivera (71) – Detroit, MI – Killed By Her Daughter’s 4 Pit Bulls (7/16/16) https://www.daxtonsfriends.com/2016/07/elizabeth-rivera-detroit-michigan-fatal-pit-bull-attack/

 

Crisencio Aliado (52) – Honolulu, HI – Killed By 2 Loose Pit Bull-Mixes (7/29/16) https://www.daxtonsfriends.com/2016/07/crisencio-aliado-honolulu-hawaii-fatal-pit-bull-attack/

 

Michelle Wilcox (30) – Screven County, Georgia – Killed By Her Boyfriend’s Pit Bull While Visiting (8/1/16) https://www.daxtonsfriends.com/2016/08/michelle-wilcox-screven-county-georgia-fatal-pit-bull-attack/

 

Derion Stevenson (9) – Las Vegas, NV – Killed By Pit Bull-Mix While Visiting Friend (8/17/16) https://www.daxtonsfriends.com/2016/08/derion-stevenson-las-vegas-nevada-fatal-pit-bull-attack/

 

Michael Downing (83) – Jacksonville, FL – Killed By Rottweiler & 3 Mixed-Breeds While Taking Out Trash (8/19/16) https://www.daxtonsfriends.com/2016/08/michael-downing-jacksonville-florida-fatal-dog-attack/

 

Susan Shawl (60) – Conifer, CO – Killed By Her Son’s 2 Family Pit Bulls (8/29/16) https://www.daxtonsfriends.com/2016/08/richard-susan-shawl-conifer-colorado-fatal-pit-bull-attack/

 

Baby Jane Doe (6-days) – College Station, TX – Killed By Breed Unknown (9/1/16) https://www.daxtonsfriends.com/2016/09/baby-jane-doe-college-station-texas-fatal-dog-attack/

 

Piper Dunbar (2) – Topeka, KS – Killed By Family Friend’s 2 Pit Bulls (9/24/16) https://www.daxtonsfriends.com/2016/09/piper-dunbar-topeka-kansas-fatal-pit-bull-attack/

 

Kiyana McNeal (4) – Sherman Township, MI – Killed By A Doberman-Mix Within An Hour Of Adopting (10/23/16) https://www.daxtonsfriends.com/2016/10/kiyana-mcneal-sherman-township-dog-doberman-fatal-attack/

 

Daisie Bradshaw (68) – New York City, NY – Killed By Her Daughter’s 2 Pit Bull-Mixes (10/25/16) https://www.daxtonsfriends.com/2016/10/daisie-bradshaw-68-staten-island-fatal-pit-bull-attack/

 

Isaiah Jacob Franklin (6) – Huntington, WV – Killed By The Family Pit Bull (12/2/16) https://www.daxtonsfriends.com/2016/12/isaiah-jacob-franklin-huntington-west-virginia-fatal-pit-bull-attack/

 

David Fear (64) – Grover Beach, CA – Killed By Neighbor’s Police K9 (12/16/16) https://www.daxtonsfriends.com/2016/12/david-fear-grover-beach-california-fatal-dog-attack/