Yvonne Webb

Sookdeo Baney, a cam­era­man at state-owned tele­vi­sion sta­tion CN­MG, need­ed eight stitch­es to his face and fore­head af­ter be­ing at­tacked by a dog on Mon­day. It hap­pened while he was seek­ing di­rec­tions to the home of two-year-old Aaliyah John­son at Maria David Trace, San Fran­cique.

Aaliyah was pro­nounced dead on ar­rival at the Siparia Dis­trict Health Fa­cil­i­ty on Sun­day night. A cou­ple, who claimed the child fell, re­mained in po­lice cus­tody up to late yes­ter­day. Baney, of Palmiste, had to have emer­gency surgery at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal to re­pair a torn artery.

Re­cu­per­at­ing at a friend's home yes­ter­day, Baney said he be­lieved the dog did not act on its own vo­li­tion, but was or­dered to at­tack. "The dog ap­peared to be well trained, trained to kill...It was go­ing for my jugu­lar. and had I not turned my head, when it pounced on me, I might have been dead," he said.

He said his trou­bles be­gan when he stopped at a house to ask a man for di­rec­tions to Aaliyah's fam­i­ly home. He said as he ap­proached the house, "The man ap­peared to be talk­ing to him­self, say­ing, 'Look an­oth­er me­dia man com­ing. Whole day the po­lice and me­dia com­ing here, why they don't leave here alone.'"

Baney said he ap­proached the man, who was stand­ing next to the dog that at­tacked him. He said he asked the name of the dog and the man told him. He asked where Aaliyah's rel­a­tives lived and the man point­ed to the house. But then, Baney said, as he was about to get in­to his car, he heard a noise be­hind him.

"I turned to­wards my right, saw the dog ris­ing in the air to­wards me," he said. "I just moved my body back­wards and turned my head to the right and the dog bit me, from the top of my fore­head to my cheek." Baney said as he fell to the ground, bleed­ing, the big white dog land­ed a short dis­tance away.

"The own­er just touched the dog and it stayed, even while I sought help from my dri­ver to clean up the blood," he said. "This is why I be­lieve the dog was well trained and would not have at­tacked me, had it not been giv­en a com­mand." Baney said he re­port­ed the in­ci­dent to the Pe­nal Po­lice Sta­tion.