WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah — A crossing guard in West Valley City is getting some recognition from a local family who says she stepped in to save their daughter from a pit bull attack.
Ruta Pataialii is known to kids in West Valley City as the person wearing a safety vest and getting them to and from school. But for the Fuette family, she's a hero.
Last Monday, the family says 11-year-old Alexis Fuette was walking to school when a pit bull, which was in a fenced yard, jumped onto the fence and bit her arm. "It was scary, and at the same time, I was shocked," Alexis remembered.
After hearing the dog attack, Ruta Pataialii stepped in to help. "I ran over and took my sign and hit the dog's head," Pataialii remembered.
Following a brief struggle, she was able to pry the dog away from the little girl. Family says the girl only suffered minor injuries.
"There were so many what-ifs that could have happened," Tawnya Fuette, Alexis' mother, pondered. "What if it got her face? Her life would've never been the same."
For Pataialii, the decision to step in wasn't hard. "If that was my granddaughter, I would have done the same thing," she explained to FOX 13 News' Mya Constantino. "When your kids come out, we're their parents, and when they come home, they're yours."
Before moving to Utah, Pataialii lived in American Samoa and then California. She moved to Utah to work as a seamstress.
Pataialii remembers that the Fuette family has been supportive of her for several years. "In the cold winter, [Alexis' dad] always buys us hot cocoa from the Maverik."
Now more familiar with each other than ever, the Fuette family says they are grateful that Pataialii was there. "It could've been way worse. So, I'm so grateful she was there."
Proving that heroes don't just wear capes, they wear safety vests too.
