BUFFALO, NY (WIVB/CNN) - A woman want answers after she and police allege a city employee stabbed her dog in a park.
Comforting her family dog Audi, Jillian Mann said she's happy Audi is alive right now.
"She's tired, still groggy from all the medications," Mann said.
Mann said her mother went to walk Audi and their other dog at a nearby park around 7:30 a.m. Saturday when she saw a man get out of a City of Buffalo truck and run toward her mother.
Police say 46-year-old James Craddock, a seasonal parks employee with the city, exchanged words with her mother and then stabbed Audi in the chest "on her left side, by her heart," Mann said, "like he wanted to kill her. He knew what he was doing. He wanted to kill her."
Family rushed her to a veterinarian hospital where she had emergency surgery.
"To think that you're going to lose a member of your family because someone doesn't like them and stab them, it's heartbreaking," Mann said.
Police say Craddock got back in the vehicle and drove away with another person. Officers caught them nearby.
Craddock was charged with aggravated cruelty to animals, criminal possession of a weapon and menacing.
"My dog doesn't do anything. She's innocent," Mann said.
She said Craddock has threatened her mother and Audi before.
"He's harassed my mother for months, saying he doesn't like pit bulls, he's going to get my mother, he's going to get her, he's going to take them out," Mann said.
Mann said she's grateful both of them are safe and home, but Audi has a long recovery ahead, both physically and mentally.
She said wanted to know how something like this could happen.
"I think it's the staffing. I've heard of his past, I heard he's on probation. How can someone like that get a job with the city of Buffalo? What kind of background checks are you doing? That's why I'm speaking out. I want answers," Mann said.
City officials say they are reviewing what happened.
Mann also says the city parks commissioner called her family and told them not to worry about the dog's medical bills.
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