Today, police have released their findings about the death of 23 year old Independence resident Jeffery O'brien. As we told you, he was mauled and killed by two vicious pitbulls sometime late on Friday night.
There was speculation - including one that aired on this channel - that the dogs were owned by Minister Joy Grant who has a home near where the mauling occurred. But police today confirmed that the dogs are actually owned by a 17 year old who lives in a small house on her property, but outside of her fenced yard.
Police today sent out a statement, saying, quote, "Minister Grant is not under investigation regarding this incident since it has been determined that the dogs do not belong to her." End quote. Police now have possession of the dogs.
Today Grant told us via telephone that she has never had any dog:...
Hon. Joy Grant, Minister of Energy, Science and Technology
"I was flabbergasted because this is a very sad and unfortunate incident which is a police matter and for that reason I kept away from the press. However, this has never been the case that I went under scrutiny and its certainly not now. In fact the police has not even been in touch with me because from the very beginning the police took a statement that made it clear that the dogs were outside my fence property that belong to someone else. I have never owned a dog for all those years and I do not own those dogs that were involved in the attack."
Jules Vasquez
"Now, however might the dogs have been living on your property?"
Hon. Joy Grant, Minister of Energy, Science and Technology
"The way it is that my house is there and fenced. There is another structure on the property which was available and I was asked by a young couple if they could live in the house. I said yes, there is no rent being paid and the person does not work for me. This person works somewhere else in Independence. That part of the property, yes I do own it."
Jules Vasquez
"And might the dogs have originated from there?"
Hon. Joy Grant, Minister of Energy, Science and Technology
"I don't know and that is something that I can't comment on. I don't know the details of what happened."
The 17 year old told police that at 1:00 am on Saturday morning he was going home when he came across Jeffery O Brien gasping for air. He had bite wounds all over his body, and his arm had almost been severed.
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