The dog attack in Newport News on Monday night began when two canines attacked an older woman, with neighbors coming to her aid also being bitten, according to newly filed court documents.

Four people were sent to the hospital, all requiring some amount of surgery, according to criminal complaint affidavits filed in court Friday morning after the dog owner’s arrest the day before.

“Some of the wounds were almost a foot long and down to the muscle, with nerves and fat exposed,” Animal Welfare Officer Katherine Mroczkowski wrote in one affidavit.

The incident began after 8 p.m. Monday, according to a Newport News police log.

Mroczkowski wrote she was notified about “two loose dogs that attacked numerous people” on Barbour Drive in the city’s Hidenwood section.

“As I was driving, I heard on the radio that one of the victims was laying in the middle of the road, and that the canines were still running in the area,” Mroczkowski wrote.

“I arrived on scene and was met by numerous (police vehicles) and ambulances.”

The dogs were contained when she arrived. She was told there were four victims — and that a Newport News police officer had shot a round toward one of the dogs as it advanced on her.

Mroczkowski also learned that the first woman attacked had been taken into a neighbor’s home.

As Mroczkowski and another woman went to speak to her, police officers asked them to watch their stepbecause “it was believed that a piece of the older woman’s flesh was still in the road being documented.”

The two white dogs involved in the attack — Sid and Zeenie — are Dogos Argentinos, court documents said. According to the American Kennel Club, those are muscular pack-hunting dogs “bred for the pursuit of big-game such as wild boar and puma.”

Robert Keith Packer, 60, was arrested Thursday and charged with a felony and five misdemeanors following Monday night’s dog attack.

The owner of both dogs, Robert Keith Packer, 60, came outside his Barbour Drive home, with the officer telling him she was taking both dogs into custody.

But while Packer agreed that his intact male dog, Sid, was involved in the attack, he refused to believe that his female dog, Zeenie, had anything to do with it.

Packer retrieved Sid and put him into the animal control officer’s truck in a “rough” fashion, Mroczkowski wrote.

Packer told the officer that he’d been on Sid’s side in a pending court case following an alleged attack on another woman in May. But he since changed his mind about the canine.

“Now he didn’t even want him,” Mroczkowski wrote. “Mr. Packer stated that he would have beaten Sid to death but didn’t want to get charged with animal cruelty.”

When Mroczkowski again pressed Packer to hand over Zeenie, he still resisted, saying he would allow the officer to see her to verify she had no blood on her.

Mroczkowski said a neighbor insisted both dogs were involved. Still, Packer didn’t budge.

Officers put him in handcuffs, planning to conduct a search warrant on his home to seize Zeenie. Packer relented, agreeing to hand over the canine in return for having the cuffs removed.

“She did not have blood on her at the time, but I did see what appeared to be a mark above her left eye,” Mroczkowski wrote of Zeenie.

Both dogs were taken to the Peninsula Regional Animal Shelter, where they remain.

Mroczkowski’s next stop Monday night was at Riverside Regional Medical Center, where the four victims were treated. The officer learned that Pamela Ritchson was about to go into surgery.

“The nurse began showing me the different wounds,” Mrockowski wrote. “There were severe, deep lacerations on her right shoulder, right arm, right leg and left arm” as well as smaller facial and finger cuts.

When Mrockowski asked how many dogs attacked her, “Ms. Ritchson held up two fingers.” She nodded when asked if both were white.

Another alleged victim, Angela Miller, had been treated in the ER and was about to get a CT scan.

Mrockowski took photos of a cut on Miller’s head and bandaged wounds on her left arm and shoulder. The officer said Miller fought back tears as she asked if she did the right thing by going outside to help Ritchson.

A third reported victim, Derek Race, had “numerous punctures to both legs” and a “large and deep laceration to his upper leg.”

The fourth victim, John Stover III, had cuts and punctures on his right elbow, left hand and wrist and “deep lacerations to the right thigh and left knee area.” Stover told the officer that Packer raised and bred puppies at the rear of his home and sold them online.

Packer was charged Thursday afternoon with six criminal counts.

The most serious is a count of failing to control a dog, leading to an attack that seriously injures another.

That felony charge — punishable by up to five years in prison — is reserved for dog owners “whose willful act of omission” shows “a reckless disregard for human life.”

Packer is also charged with two counts of allowing a dog to be at large and attack another person. Those are misdemeanors punishable by a combined 12 months behind bars.

He also faces an additional charge of allowing a dog to be at large and two counts of failing to license his dogs. Those carry the possibility of $1,000 in combined fines.

Packer was released from the City Jail following his arrest, with an arraignment scheduled for Sept. 12.

He separately has a May 19 charge against him. He’s accused of allowing a dog to run at large, leading to an attack. That stemmed from an incident in which two dogs attacked a woman and her yellow Lab in the neighborhood.

After that incident, Animal Welfare officers filed a “summons for a vicious dog” to begin legal proceedings to protect the public from Sid, which could include euthanizing the canine. The officers filed such documents on both dogs this week.

Packer could not be reached for comment by phone Friday. Steve Dunnigan, the attorney representing him in the May incident, also could not be reached.

Peter Dujardin, 757-897-2062, pdujardin@dailypress.com

https://www.dailypress.com/2025/09/06/nn-dog-attack-court-docs/