Big Island police have identified the man who died following a deadly dog attack Tuesday as 71-year-old Robert Northrop of Ocean View. Hawaii Police officers responded to the scene after they received report of the incident.
Officers found Northrop lying unconscious in the road. A witness reported seeing four dogs attacking the man. Northrop was transported to the hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The owners of the dogs were not at home at the time of the incident, according to police. The four canines and a litter of ten puppies have now been surrendered to the county’s animal control office.
A case involving police negligence and a deadly dog has been opened.
Shannon Matson shared a post regarding the incident on Facebook – “I still haven’t had a chance to contact all family and friends I wanted to, but since they have released his name publicly- yes, my father was attacked and killed by dogs yesterday while walking to a friends house. Sorry if you are finding out from Facebook, but it’s all over the news so I am just confirming and no I don’t have any additional information beyond what is in all the articles. The autopsy is supposed to be done tomorrow.
I will update if/when I know more. I can’t even begin to put into words all the complicated things I feel right now. Mostly I hate that it says his name is Robert Northrop cause everyone who knows him knows it’s Bob. Also he was an animal lover so this is an especially cruel twist of fate, but also all who knew him knows he never did anything half assed, so we all knew he was gonna leave this world in some sort of wild and crazy way. Hopefully this will be the last time anyone on our island loses their life to a dog attack. He wasn’t the first but I will do everything in my power to make sure he is the last.”
