A woman from Massachusetts, Melanie Russell from Fitchburg, said her loyal dog saved her life after she was brutally attacked by two intruders. On Thursday afternoon, a man and woman broke into her apartment and violently assaulted her. They hit her, used a stun gun, and one attacker even covered her mouth and nose to stop her from breathing. Russell said the attackers kept hurting her until her 11-year-old dog, Phoenix, stepped in to protect her.
Melanie Russell’s daughter, Brooklyn, shared on Facebook that when their dog, Phoenix, tried to protect her mom, the attackers also hit and tased the dog. Brooklyn described the attackers as a heavy-set woman and a man.
Russell is now dealing with multiple broken bones in her face, including a broken eye socket. Even though Phoenix saved her, she is still afraid the attackers might come back. She told Boston 25 News, “Where you live is supposed to be your safe place,” and got emotional.
The police believe the attack was targeted, and there’s no immediate danger to the community. Russell thinks the attack is connected to something that happened two days earlier. Two men had banged on her door and her neighbor’s door, demanding to know where a package was that had been delivered to the wrong place. They threatened the people in the complex, and even though the police were called, they never came. Brooklyn also mentioned that a third man was waiting in a dark blue Toyota Camry nearby.
During the assault, one of the attackers asked Melanie Russell, “Where is it?” but she had no idea what he was talking about.
In the comments, Brooklyn reassured everyone that their dog, Phoenix, was a bit shaken and roughed up but doing okay.
This attack happened five months after a different incident in Newport Beach, where a homeowner shot at two men who broke into his $5 million home while his family was asleep. Police arrived early in the morning to find one suspect dead and the other bleeding in the street, still armed. The intruder who died had a strange “self-inflicted” gunshot wound, according to the police.