Senior Reporter
kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt
After years of protecting citizens, a retired police constable is now recovering from a battle that nearly cost him his life—an attack by a pitbull outside his Claxton Bay home.
O’Neil Sookoo fought back tears yesterday as he recalled the terrifying moment the dog mauled him on Saturday night. Despite his injuries, he managed to save both himself and his wife, Sherry.
Speaking at his Cedar Hill Road home, Sookoo said he returned around 9.45 pm with his family and sent them inside ahead of him. As he walked up the driveway, a neighbour’s dogs began barking and running toward him.
“Thinking it was just a few small pothounds, I tried to chase them away, but then a grey pitbull joined them and lunged at me,” he said.
Armed only with a bottle of water, Sookoo tried to defend himself, kicking at the animal, but it was relentless. Within seconds, he was bleeding from multiple bite wounds from his ankles to his thighs.
“To tell you the truth, with that dog, I saw death,” he said. “Thank God that with all the bites I got — even the doctor said it — if an artery had been broken, I would have bled to death. The whole road, even my van and bridge, were full of blood.”
Hearing his screams, Sherry ran outside with a tree branch to help, but the dog turned on her. Despite his injuries, Sookoo threw himself between them.
“The dog was attacking me, and my wife came out and started striking it with a piece of wood. The wood broke, and then the dog turned from me and went toward her. When I saw that, I grabbed it around the waist and front paws to hold it back, but it turned and started biting my wrist,” he recalled.
His hands were shredded and now heavily bandaged. Flesh hung from his left wrist, while his right arm, shoulder, and chest were torn open.
Eventually, his son threw him a cutlass, and though his grip slipped from the blood, Sookoo struck the dog several times until the neighbour finally called it away.
He said no one from the neighbour’s household spoke to him until police arrived. After being discharged from hospital, he filed a report on Sunday. Officers later visited both parties.
Sookoo said he had never seen the pitbull before, though his son had often seen the neighbours walking it. He believes they left their gate open, allowing it to escape.
“I had to fight for my life,” he said. “The neighbour came out on the gallery, looked at me getting bitten, and did not call the dog. There’s been a feud going on here, and it stems from way back when this land was not occupied.”
He said the dispute began years ago when his father allowed a neighbour to plant on the land, but tensions flared again when his family moved there permanently.
Police said relatives took Sookoo to the Point Fortin Hospital, where he was treated and discharged. Officers confirmed that the 29-year-old dog owner and Sookoo later reached an agreement for compensation in the presence of police, and both parties agreed to have a legal letter drafted to formalise it.
