Crime

Dog saves owner, 86, during alleged attack by naked neighbor in N.H.

Manchester police responded to a domestic incident Sunday and reportedly found one man lying on a porch covered in blood, another man standing over him in the nude.

Donald Pierce, 55, of Manchester, is accused of attacking a neighbor early on Sunday, police in New Hampshire said. Manchester Police Department

By Abby Patkin

July 11, 2024

1 minute to read

A New Hampshire man is facing numerous criminal charges after police say he turned up naked at a neighbor’s house and attacked an 86-year-old resident who was letting his dog outside.

Manchester police responded to Pine Avenue around 1 a.m. Sunday for a report of a domestic incident, the department said in a press release. Officers reportedly heard someone yelling for help behind 38 Pine Ave. and found one man lying on the porch covered in blood, another man standing over him in the buff.

New Hampshire news:

The naked man, later identified as Donald Pierce, 55, began yelling at police, making threats, and charging at officers, the Manchester Police Department said. An officer used a taser on Pierce several times in an effort to subdue him, and police took the Manchester man into custody, according to the press release.

“It was later learned that Pierce had been involved in a physical altercation with a woman at a nearby home,” Manchester police said. “Afterwards he encountered an 86-year-old man who was letting his dog out. Pierce assaulted the man, hitting him with his fists and a chair. He also injured the man’s dog.”

Police said the victim, who did not know Pierce, was taken to a local hospital with nonlife-threatening injuries. Speaking to WMUR, Jeff Tarmey identified the victim as his uncle, Ned Tarmey. He told the news outlet his uncle’s rescue dog, Kane, jumped in to hold Pierce down until police arrived.

“The dog saved his life, because if it wasn’t for the dog, then he [Pierce] would have continued beating my uncle and certainly killed him,” Jeff Tarmey told WMUR.

Pierce is charged with first-degree assault; second-degree assault — domestic violence; felony criminal threatening; felony criminal mischief; four counts of simple assault; criminal trespassing; indecent exposure; misdemeanor criminal mischief; cruelty to animals; and resisting arrest. According to police, he is being held in preventative detention pending a July 16 probable cause hearing.