Man Feared For His Life During Dog Attack; Police Kill Animal After Hours-Long Struggle (Dan Morse/The Washington Post; Dec 4)

Lying in a hospital bed this week, Orlando Romero spoke about what it was like to be attacked by his 120-pound dog, a Rottweiler-pit bull mix.

“What came to my mind: I was going to die,” said Romero, recovering from wounds that he said required 150 stitches.

The attack brought a team of police officers to his home in Rockville on Saturday night. They spent hours trying to catch the dog, which crashed into walls, busted a hole through the door of a bedroom where he had briefly been contained, jumped on windowsills and ignored several electronic rounds from a Taser as Romero was being taken to a hospital for emergency surgery.

After Romero, 38, woke up at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, an officer asked for his approval to take things to the next level.

“You know the dog is still in the house. Is it okay if we get rid of the dog?” he asked, Romero recalled. “Yeah,” Romero answered. “Go ahead.” Officers killed the dog with two gunshots about 1 a.m. Sunday.

Romero and police haven’t always seen eye to eye, as evidenced by an ankle monitor he was wearing. After the El Salvador native moved to the Washington area, he worked at an Italian restaurant in Bethesda. Six years ago, he launched Romero’s Floors, an installation and refinishing operation.

At home two years ago, he said, he found himself alone. “I used to pray a lot. One of the prayers, I had a vision, and God told me to get a pet and name him Jesus (pronounced Hay-SOOS). And that’s how I got him. And he really did help me a lot.”

One such occasion, he said, was during a raid of his home last year. Officers thought Romero had as many as seven handguns, which would have violated a protective order involving the mother of two of his children, according to court records. When officers arrived, Romero said, they were only too happy to keep him and Jesus behind a closed door.

Officers found one gun, in a shed, and charged Romero with violating the protective order. At his sentencing, prosecutors brought up previous assault convictions. But Romero’s attorney, Neil Jacobs, said that Romero had been holding the gun for a friend, that it wasn’t loaded and that Romero was a changed man and had been going to church.

Romero avoided jail time and got the ankle bracelet, which allowed him to keep installing floors in a manner that even those with whom he has clashed said is done well.

Romero said he thinks that the long days at work caused Jesus to become restless alone in the house. The situation probably wasn’t helped by the introduction three months ago of his son’s pit bull puppy, Chloe, which might have made Jesus jealous. A month ago, Jesus bit one of his sons.

Thus the stage was set for the incident Saturday night, when Romero had some of his children in for the weekend. He asked a son to walk on his back to relieve pain. Jesus walked in, with a menacing stare. Romero stood up, and Jesus struck, biting him in the stomach. “After that, he just kept attacking me,” Romero said.

Romero wrestled with the dog as it tore into his right forearm. Romero tried to choke him, worried about his two daughters, ages 5 and 6. “I fight with him because I had my two little babies,” he said. “When he grabbed me, he was shaking me.”

The children got out of the house, and the son called police.

Back inside, with his free hand, Romero said, “I put my fingers on his nose and I tear his nose up, and that’s how he let me go.”

Romero said he had barely made it out of his bedroom, shutting the door, and was on his out of the house when he saw a police officer on his way in. Minutes later, he said, he was in an ambulance.

As he recalled the attack this week, several co-workers dropped by his hospital room, along with another son, Tony. At one point, Tony, 16, told his dad that he thought the four Taser shots to Jesus seemed a bit much.

“That had to be done,” his father said. “They gotta do what they gotta do.”

Romero and his son also discussed flooring jobs. Tony will try to help run the business while his dad is on the mend. Romero, who left the hospital Wednesday, said he doesn’t have health insurance and is facing more than $20,000 in medical bills. He said that it will take at least eight months for his right wrist to heal and that it might never be the same.

As for another dog, Romero said he thinks he might get a small poodle or a Chihuahua.