WASHINGTON — Three days after a violent attack in Northeast D.C. where a woman had her dog ripped from her arms, the victim and her nearly 14-year-old pup were reunited Tuesday after the man who found the dog said he saw the missing animal on the news.
The woman picked up her dog at the Kenilworth Park & Aquatic Gardens, about six miles from the site of her violent encounter.
One of the men who alerted police said he found Max wandering down the sidewalk on Tuesday morning. Detectives went to the location and then notified the woman her dog had been found safe.
"It looked familiar. I said it looked like the dog that was on the news, but it was friendly so that's why I thought it was the dog that was on the news. So I just put him in the car and brought him up here," David Graham said.
Graham said he called police and said he thought it was the dog that was missing, and it was.
Zaleena Ahmed said she was attacked on Saturday around 10 p.m. on Galloway Street Northeast near the Fort Totten Metro station as she was walking her West Highland White Terrier named Max.
Ahmed said a man in a mask and hoodie approached her, but she was unable to understand what he was saying. He then proceeded to snatch her dog's leash and started pulling. As she pulled back, she says Max's harness came off and when she attempted to pick him up, the man hit her on the right-hand side of her forehead with the gun.
"So now I am screaming help, help, help," Ahmed told WUSA9 outside her Northeast apartment on Sunday. She said that as she was asking for help, a dark-colored van or SUV pulled up and the driver asked if everything was OK. "I am like, no, this guy is trying to rob me. So I start walking around the vehicle to the driver's side and I see that guy also has a mask on and a hood. So I realized that they are in it together."
Ahmed said the man with the gun instructed the driver of the van to take Max who was in her arms. He snatched the dog and they both took off with the dog that will turn 14 on Oct. 31.
The concerned dog owner says physically she is fine. She received stitches on her forehead and hurt her hand attempting to open the van door to save Max.
Ahmed was concerned for Max's declining health. He recently had his teeth removed, he is on a liver supplement, and his vision has started failing.
"We survived so much together," Ahmed said as she described her close bond with her emotional support animal. She said that it is not the first time she is separated from Max. In 2018, they were reunited after he was ejected during a car crash that took her mother's life.
"He just provides that additional support that I don't have from my mom anymore, and so I just like need him. I mean, I have been kind of preparing with him being older, but not in this way. I just want my sidekick back."
Ahmed said Max appeared to be in good health and was clean on Tuesday. She's already given him treats and his favorite toy.