NYCHA worker attacked by pit bulls in the Bronx

BRONX (WABC) -- A New York City Housing Authority worker just trying to do his job was attacked by a pair of vicious illegal pit bulls in the Bronx.

That NYCHA worker had no idea what he was walking into when he and his partner knocked on a door inside the Morris Houses.

Out came two banned pit bulls in attack mode that bit him over and over again and nearly cost him his life.

"I start screaming, screaming, screaming, I'm screaming for help," said Alphonsus Ojevwe, a NYCHA worker.

His desperate screams went unanswered and at one point Ojevwe thought he would die on Thursday.

"As she opened the apartment door, the tenant, the two pit bulls they rush out from that apartment," Ojevwe said.

Ojevwe and his fellow NYCHA coworker were trying to recover unpaid rent from a tenant, when the two massive dogs reportedly pushed past a child who opened the door. They burst into the hallway and then ran straight toward him.

"I was fighting from the floor, fighting so one of them as I was on the floor, one of them came and he chomped me on the face," Ojevwe said.

In the melee, Ojevwe was bit several times on his right thigh, face, and behind. He showed Eyewitness News the blood stained and shredded clothes he was wearing before he finally managed to fight off the vicious pair and escape down a stairwell.

"The owner was staying inside," Ojevwe said. "I thought I would not even survive, I thought I would not survive because their intention was just to really kill me."

Pit bulls have been banned in NYCHA buildings since 2010 and officials say the two dogs involved in this incident have since been removed from the apartment.

Action against the tenant is also pending, but for Ojevwe both the physical and emotional scars will take some time to heal.

"It was a painful situation. I've never experienced that experience in my life," Ojevwe said.