OCEANSIDE, Calif. (KGTV) - A beloved school custodian and his brother are recounting a vicious dog attack in Oceanside that left the custodian with serious injuries.
“The dog first came up into my yard and into my driveway,” said Carl McCullough.
He says he was hanging out on his porch, with his brother Ivy, 46, the day after Christmas, when a dog, possibly a Belgian Malinois mix, came wandering into his yard. Surveillance video shows the dog off leash at a neighbor's house on Greenbrier Drive moments before.
About 30 seconds later after the dog ran into the yard, he says two people, including a young man with a backpack, walked past.
“I said, ‘Can you pick up your poop from your dog?’ He said, ‘That’s not my dog. This dog is a coyote.’ We’re like, ‘It’s not a coyote.’ Then he calls the dog … sits down right by him, and that's when he calls us the racial slurs,” said Carl.
In a different video, you can hear the curse-filled rant, including one of several racial slurs the brothers say the man yelled.
The brothers say they were about 5 feet away when it happened.
“The head of the dog in his hands … He was shaking it. He said something I didn’t understand, and then the dog just attacked me,” said Ivy.
From his hospital bed, Ivy says after the man released the dog, it went right at him.
“Bit me around my legs. Shucked it off somehow, and it came back around and got me on my backside,” said Ivy.
Ivy says he was bitten five times, before his brother and a neighbor, also bitten, helped get the dog off him. Police were called, but the couple ran off, along with the dog.
Ivy suffered ruptured tendons in his both thighs, requiring a surgery and six months of recovery. Both brothers believe the attack was motivated by hate.
“It's motivation was racially charged. He had it out for us from the beginning by calling us that,” said Carl.
In the wake of the attack, the community has rallied around Ivy, a beloved custodian at Palmquist Elementary. Parents and friends have organized fundraisers. Students made and sent cards.
“It’s unbelievable. The kids mean the world to me. Every day, I look at the cards and get a smile on my face. I can't explain how much I feel the school community’s support,” said Ivy.
The San Diego Humane Society is leading the investigation. If it's determined to be a hate crime, it could be sent back to Oceanside Police.
Anyone with information on the case is asked to call the Humane Society at 619-299-7012 and press 1 for the dispatch line.
