Bystanders aid family attacked by dogs while panhandling in Eden Prairie

Good Samaritans recalled the horror they encountered on an Eden Prairie exit ramp, where they rushed to the aid of a couple panhandling with their toddler daughter who were bloodied during an attack by three dogs that escaped from their owners' SUV.

The frantic scene unfolded about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday at the top of the ramp from westbound Interstate 494 to Flying Cloud Drive, said police spokeswoman Joyce Lorenz.

While the SUV was stopped at the ramp's red light, a man came toward the vehicle, prompting the dogs to bark, Lorenz said. As he moved closer still to the SUV, "one of the dogs jumped from the window of the vehicle and chased and bit the three individuals," Lorenz said.

An owner of the dog exited the SUV to retrieve the animal, and the other two dogs got out as well, the spokeswoman added.

An ambulance took the adult female victim, Sabona Tudor of Brooklyn Center, to HCMC with noncritical injuries, Lorenz said. She was in satisfactory condition Friday afternoon, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Ilie Tudor and 2-year-old daughter Sofia went to HCMC on their own and survived their injuries, Lorenz said.

The dogs' owners, whom police have not identified, "are cooperating with police," and the animals are in quarantine as the investigation continues, Lorenz said.

P.M. Ernste said she was in her vehicle with her daughter on the ramp, saw the entire attack and rushed to the bleeding woman's aid.

"The woman was on the ground bleeding and protecting her daughter and getting just mauled," Ernste said.

Ernste said she took off her tank top and wrapped the woman's right arm, "which had two full gouges from one side to the other. I could see the bone." The left arm also was bitten, Ernste said.

The couple, who had a sign with them asking for rent money, and their daughter found refuge in another driver's car while waiting for police and emergency medical personnel to arrive, Ernste said.

"They opened my back door," said the witness, who asked not to be identified out of concern for her safety. "The father literally threw the baby in the back seat and pushed his wife into my car behind me. He ran to the other side and got in."

Sizing up the injuries to three people as they waited in her car for police and emergency personnel to arrive, the woman recalled seeing the mauling as just a "mix of dogs and bodies. It's hard to believe only one dog would do that much damage."

Eventually, Ernste said, the man secured one dog but the other two kept running loose until the other driver calmed them down with honks of her horn. The dogs' owners got all three back in his vehicle, drove off but soon returned, she said.

Police would only describe the dogs as mixed breeds, while Ernste and the other driver were confident they were pit bulls.

The man and woman with the dogs "were zero help" for the victims, Ernste said. "They kept telling me they wouldn't bite."