A woman was arrested over the weekend after allegedly pepper spraying the owner of a dog that attacked her neighbor.
The chain of events started Sunday evening on the 2400 block of S. Monroe Street, in Nauck.
Police say a woman was bitten in the face by a dog that belonged to a man who was renting a room in her house. The dog attacked the woman after she stomped her feet and tried to take a bone away from it, according to Arlington County Police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck. The dog’s owner was not at home at the time.
The woman went to the hospital, received several stitches, then returned home and called police to report the dog bite.
Later that night, just past midnight, police were called to the house again. The owner of the dog had returned home and was sleeping when he awoke to find a woman standing next to him. The next thing he knew, the woman was pepper spraying him in the face, Sternbeck said.
Police responded to the house and found the woman, a next door neighbor and friend of the bitten homeowner, hiding in some woods behind the house, Sternbeck said.
The woman, who had reportedly been drinking earlier in the day, was taken into custody but on the way back to the police cruiser she tripped and struck her face on a fence, causing a black eye, according to Sternbeck. An officer was dragged down with the falling suspect and suffered a dislocated shoulder, he said.
Arlington resident Laura Dyckman was arrested and charged with breaking and entering with intent to assault, plus assault and battery by caustic substance. She was held on bond.
The dog, breed unknown, remained in the custody of its owner.