Amazon driver dies in suspected dog attack while delivering a package in Missouri
Local police and medical personnel in northwestern Missouri are investigating the death of an Amazon employee who was apparently attacked by a pair of dogs while delivering a package on Monday evening.
The Amazon driver was found dead in the yard of someone's residence near Excelsior Springs, about 30 miles east of Kansas City, at around 7:30 p.m. local time, Ray County Sheriff Scott Childers told CBS News on Tuesday. The driver, whose name has not been released publicly, was delivering a package at the unoccupied home. The residents were out of town, said Childers, who confirmed that the sheriff's office has spoken with the people who live there.
Ray County sheriff's deputies were dispatched to the house after concerned neighbors called to report that a vehicle had been parked outside for several hours, which they found suspicious, Childers said. When deputies arrived, they discovered the driver lying in the yard with injuries that the sheriff said were "consistent with canine bites," although he noted that an official cause of death will be determined after an autopsy is conducted Wednesday.
A necropsy will also be performed on both dogs to evaluate their stomach contents, check for rabies and examine their mouths for traces of flesh and blood, Childers said. The Mastif and German Shepherd, which the sheriff's office confirmed both lived at the residence, were found on the property Monday night and met deputies with "aggressive" behavior, the sheriff said.
After a deputy shot one of the animals but did not "mortally wound" it, Childers said he decided to fatally shoot both dogs to protect the safety of responding officers.
"We're deeply saddened by tonight's tragic incident involving a member of our Amazon family and will be providing support to the team and the driver's loved ones. We are assisting law enforcement in their investigation," Amazon said in a statement to CBS News.
Although Childers emphasized that the Amazon driver's official cause of death has not yet been ruled, he did say incidents like these are unusual in the county. In what he described as a "strange" occurrence, the sheriff told CBS News that another Amazon driver was bitten by a dog during a delivery run in the area on Sunday. That driver was not fatally injured.
The Amazon driver's death comes after a handful of cases across the U.S. involving deadly canine bites. In October, an 80-year-old woman was attacked and killed by two dogs, both Dogos Argentinos, while taking a walk in California. Around the same time, two young children were killed and their mother was hospitalized after being attacked by a pair of family dogs at their home in Tennessee. Just weeks earlier, an 89-year-old woman was attacked and killed by a pair of bit pulls in Colorado. Her 12-year-old grandson also sustained serious injuries in the attack.