Stray dogs maul woman to death in California park; one shot after charging at police

Salvador Hernandez, Los Angeles Times on Aug 1, 2025

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One woman was killed and another person injured in a San Bernardino, California, park after the two were mauled in an attack involving more than a dozen stray dogs on Thursday, police said.

San Bernardino police converged on Perris Hill Park in the 1100 block of East Highland Avenue after receiving a call that someone was being attacked by dogs in the park, said Sgt. Chris Gray of the San Bernardino Police Department.

Officers encountered multiple dogs when they arrived, he said.

"It appears they may have been stray dogs," Gray said.

At least one of the dogs began to charge at one of the officers, Gray said, prompting the officer to fire at the pit bull.

The pit bull was struck and died at the scene.

It was not immediately clear where the dogs came from or how many were directly involved in the attack, Gray said.

"It was a bit of a chaotic scene at first because there were multiple dogs out there," Gray said.

However, officers were able to find two people who appeared to have suffered several dog bites in the attack, he said.

Officers rendered aid to the two victims. One of them, a woman, was taken to a hospital and died.

She was identified as Teodora Mendoza, 51, by the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department's coroner division.

Alex Lozano, 21, told the Los Angeles Times that Mendoza was his mother and said she often stayed at Perris Hill Park with a male companion.

His mother had been homeless for more than a year now, Lozano said.

Mendoza usually split her time between San Bernardino and Banning, where Lozano now lives, he said. However, he said he had not spoken to her for some time.

"My grandpa from Texas called and said that my mom was attacked by pit bulls," he said. "That's how I found out."

It was unclear if the two victims knew each other, he said.

Animal services officials were called to assist police officers and took a total of 14 dogs from the park, said Araceli Mata, spokesperson for the Police Department.

Deaths related to dog bites are rare, but have increased across the country in recent years.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 35 deaths in the U.S. were attributed to being struck or bitten by a dog in 2018. That number jumped to 81 people in 2021, climbed again to 98 in 2022, and in 2023, the most recent year with available data, the CDC reported 96 deaths attributed to dogs.