Earlier this month, Lakesha Newsom was walking along Highway 178 in Mississippi when a routine morning turned into a fight for her life. For three weeks, the mother of three remained at a hospital in Memphis, a period defined by grueling surgeries and a family’s desperate prayers after she was savagely attacked by a pack of dogs.
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It was March 3 when Newsom was walking in Holly Springs, about three hours north of Jackson, Mississippi, when four dogs mauled her.
“At one point, they did stop attacking me. I guess they thought I was dead,” Newsom recalled to News Channel 3. “I was trying to land back on my feet, trying to get away from them, and once they noticed that, that’s when they started back attacking me again.”
The 35-year-old told the outlet how she knew the “dogs were trying to kill me, and I fought them as long as I could. I just kept saying, ‘God, no. I shall live.’” Her aunt, Jerlene Tyson, said Newsom “had to lie there for hours and hours before anybody helped her.”
The mother of three was admitted to the intensive care unit at Regional One Health, her family said, and her right arm and right leg were amputated due to the severity of her injuries.
On Friday, March 27, Newsom died, leaving behind 11-year-old twins and a 13-year-old, her sister DeWaylia Young confirmed. “She fought as hard as she could. Our family is completely shattered,” her sibling said.
The Holly Springs Police Department arrested the owner of the dogs, 54-year-old Sandra Harris, on March 23 in connection with the dog mauling incident. Harris has been charged with Aggravated Assault – Manifesting Extreme Indifference to the value of Human Life. According to the HSPD, they have called the District Attorney’s office to see if Harris’ charges will be upgraded now that Newsom has died.
Even though Harris is currently behind bars at the Marshall County Sheriff’s Department for allegedly allowing her dogs to run at large, Newsom’s family is demanding more because the dogs have not been put down.
“We’re still trying to find the words to process this,” Rosie Young, Newsom’s mother, said, per News Channel 3. “To have these dogs still alive, how fair is that? Why are they keeping these dogs from being put down? We lost Kesha.”
Before her death, Newsom told News Channel 3, “I just want whoever owned them dogs. I want them to be held accountable.”
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