Pit Bull Kills Man Attempting To Help Owner Dying Of Heart Attack

A West Virginia man was killed by a pit bull while attempting to help the animal's dying owner.

Officers in Wheeling responding to the home of 63-year-old David Wallace said he died of a heart attack Sunday night, WTRF first reported. His friend, 62-year-old Roy Higgenbotham Jr., was killed by Wallace's pit bull, who neighbors said was worried Wallace was being harmed.

Neighbors who saw the scene said the 3-year-old female pit bull had never appeared aggressive in the past. More from WTRF:

"One of them had, had some heart problems and it seems like she was protecting him from the person trying to resuscitate him," Neighbor Beth Patsch said. "She was always wonderful, they had her and her mother, and her mother had just passed in the fall, I believe, and this was the puppy. They've had her since she was tiny, tiny and never a problem."

Patsch told the station that she watched a woman avoid being attacked by the dog by escaping out a second floor window of the home.

Though police said Higgenbotham was attacked by the pit bull, they are waiting for an autopsy before determining his cause of death, according to WTOV9.

The dog has been placed in quarantine by the Ohio County Animal Control, according to the Associated Press.