MARION, Ohio (WCMH) — Just after noon on Friday, a Marion police officer saw a man with a hatchet and a woman screaming in their yards in the 400 block of Windsor Street.

At first he thought they were fighting with each other, but then he saw a pit-bull dog was on the loose biting people. The pit bull bit the officer’s thigh, and then attacked another man, according to information from a Marion Police Department media release.

The officer fired his gun, killing the dog.

That’s when he found out the dog came from nearby house, where there was a second, more aggressive dog to be found, the release said.

The officer went to that house and discovered a severely-injured woman lying at the front door. She’d been mauled by another pit bull which weighed 110 pounds, and was still in the house.

By this time, more officers and medics came to the house to help the woman who’d been bitten in many places. They found out that a third person had also been seriously injured by the same dog, and had already been taken away to Marion General Hospital by family, the release explained.

The Marion Police Department contacted the Dog Warden. Accompanied by Marion PD Officers and the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, the Dog Warden tried to take away the 110-pound pit bull now contained to the upstairs of the duplex apartment.

But the Dog Warden couldn’t snare the dog. Ultimately, the second dog was killed by MPD Officers, and the Dog Warden took away the two dead dogs.

In total, three people went to MGH for significant injuries sustained from bites from the two dogs, including the dogs’ owner, the release said.

“Killing a dog is not something we take lightly”, said Marion Police Chief Jay McDonald in the media release. “Given the vicious nature of the dog involved here, our officers were left with no reasonable alternative and there is little question in my mind that their intervention prevented even more injuries from occurring.”

Sheriff Matt Bayles said “I am thankful that no additional injuries were caused and I wish a speedy recovery to all of the people who were hurt today by these dogs,” the release concluded.