Trooper attacked by dogs, two killed

GARRETT, Ind. (WANE) Indiana State Trooper Mike Carroll is off duty until the bite wounds on his hand and right calf heal.

Carroll went to the house of Meghan Cahill, 23, of Garret, to find and arrest Nathan J. Brady, 22, on Sunday evening. Brady had a warrant out for his arrest based on a charge of failure to appear in court for a previous charge of invasion of privacy.

Carroll said three dogs were loose on the property but they did not initially pose any kind of threat.

Brady was taken into custody and arrested. The dogs became a problem when Carroll then began to arrest Cahill. Cahill began to flail and protest which caused the dogs to become aggressive and attack Carroll.

Carroll told NewsChannel 15's partners at KPC News “It wasn’t the dogs’ fault.”

“I believe it was her resisting, fighting and yelling that caused the dogs to attack,” Carroll said. “They perceived I was hurting her.”

Carroll was bitten on the left hand and the right calf. Carroll said he had to shoot the dog biting his hand. DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Aaron Long then stepped between Carroll and the two other dogs when they continued to be aggressive and shot at them with his department-issued rifle. 

Carroll needed two stitches to close the puncture on his hand and seven stitches to close the deeper bite wound on his calf. He is also on an antibiotic regimen as a precaution.

Two of the dogs were killed and the third was injured but had to be put down.

The three dogs were pitbulls but Carroll does not believe their breed was an issue. He said the animals acted instinctively to protect their owner when they believed her to be threatened.

The dogs brains are being sent to the Purdue University School of Veterinary Medicine to be checked for rabies. None of the dogs were properly immunized.

Cahill was booked into the DeKalb County Jail and faces charges of assisting a criminal, a Class A misdemeanor, and harboring a nonimmunized dog, a Class B misdemeanor.

Carroll had been recognized earlier in the year for pulling a woman from a burning van while he was off duty. The National Association of Police Organizations honored him for his actions on Jan. 16, 2011 when he and passerby Marcus K. Michael saved the trapped Jennifer Wooster, of Wolcottville, after her van crashed into a utility pole near Wolcotville.