As the sun set Memorial Day evening, a crowd gathered in memory of a woman who once served in the U.S. Army.
But 52-year old Antoinette Brown did not die in service to her country. She died after being mauled by a pack of loose dogs on the streets of South Dallas.
"I feel like Antoinette Brown could have been my neighbor," said vigil organizer Carla Atkins. "She could have been any one of us."
Brown was mauled in the early morning hours of May 2. She had at least 100 dog bites and spent a week in a coma at Baylor University Medical Center before she died.
"This never should have happened," said Atkins, who never met Brown before organizing Monday's candlelight remembrance.
"I just know that I have this very powerful thing in my heart that told me that I needed to do this," she explained. "I've never met anyone in her family, but I want them to know that she was an important woman. She should not have lost her life."
Brown's daughter, Matisha Ward, and her niece, Breanna Breedlove, came to the ceremony on the Ronald Kirk Pedestrian Bridge.
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"I would never have thought my aunt would have so many people show her love like this," Breedlove told the crowd through her tears. "We love you all."
City leaders have vowed to crack down on the problem of loose, stray and aggressive dogs, and Dallas Animal Services has had a more visible presence in problem neighborhoods in South Dallas since the deadly attack.
"I had no fear of dogs until I moved to Dallas," Atkins said.
She has three dogs of her own and said she has fostered at least one a month since moving to Dallas last December.
"What is it going to take for you to realize that the loose dog issues in Dallas are at crisis level and need immediate and desperate attention?" she said.
Dallas Police are still investigating the deadly mauling, but so far there have been no arrests.
