Pit bull-type dogs attack prominent SC prosecutor out for a jog at Harbison Forest

A prominent federal prosecutor out for a jog in Harbison State Forest found himself fighting for his life when he was attacked by two large unchained pit bull-type dogs over the weekend.

But Winston Holliday, who has helped put some of South Carolina’s most notorious criminals behind bars, was saved when an off-duty police officer happened upon what could have been a fatal mauling Saturday morning. The dogs were either pit bulls or pit bull mixes, Holliday said.

Holliday, 57, an avid jogger and runner, suffered wounds to his arms and legs, the most serious being to his right forearm. The gash from dog bites required five stitches. A photo Holliday posted on Facebook shows his arm stitched up and spattered with blood. One of his hands won’t close because it is so swollen from punching the dogs in self defense. All told, he received 17 stitches on his arms and legs as a result of the attack.

“These dogs are a known menace,’’ Holliday said, explaining that other people have encountered the animals in the area.

Holliday was the second jogger attacked in two days at Harbison, apparently by the same two vicious dogs.

On Friday afternoon, Connor McNeill, 19, a recent graduate of Irmo High School, was attacked as he was jogging in Harbison by two pit bull-type dogs that tried to bite him, he said. He fought them off for more than 30 minutes, most of the time while he was standing on a stump and kicking them and hitting them with his fists.

Holliday and McNeill, an ultra marathoner and weight lifter who is in exceptional physical shape, said they doubted if a child or an out-of-shape person could have survived what they each went through.

While on the stump, McNeill said he managed to call a relative who drove her car down an unpaved road to reach him, he said. Her presence finally made the dogs leave, he said.

“If it was a couple of minutes later, I would definitely not be here. Those dogs, they were aiming for my neck,” said McNeill, who is getting into even better physical shape these days because on Nov. 4, he will begin basic training at the U.S. Army’s Fort Jackson. After that, McNeill plans to attend Army combat medic school in San Antonio and enter The Citadel for college later in 2026.

Both Holliday and McNeill described large and well-muscled pit bull-type dogs that took turns methodically circling them, one hanging back while the other lunged at them.

Meanwhile, the state Forestry Commission said Monday afternoon that it is closing Harbison State Forest until at least Thursday while it tries to locate the dogs. The commission’s notice was posted on Facebook.

The commission said that it had become aware of other incidents in and around the state forest near Broad River Road. Two large aggressive dogs cornered a teenager Friday, but the youth managed to escape without injury, the commission said in its Facebook post.

Holliday’s attack is being investigated by the Columbia police department, whose jurisdiction includes Harbison forest. Dog traps have been set in an effort to capture the animals, which the Forestry Commission said had not been seen since Saturday. The commission said a similar dog sighting had been reported July 9.

“Nobody knows who the dogs belong to,” said Columbia police Chief Skip Holbrook. “Animal control has put some traps out to try to trap them. We have notified the park law enforcement to be aware and be on the lookout also.”

Holbrook said it is also possible that the dogs may be running wild. Determining their ownership, or lack thereof, is one of the objects of the police investigation.

The decision to close the forest was made Monday after the Forestry Commission pieced together the different encounters people had with the dogs, spokesman Russell Hubright said.

“A lot of the facts of all these attacks just came to light recently,’’ he said, noting that the agency could not recall anyone ever being attacked by a dog at Harbison before.

Agency officials chose not to close the state forest Sunday, even though there was a 5k road race there. Hubright said the Forestry Commission spoke with race organizers who favored continuing with the event because it involved multiple runners, meaning there was safety in numbers.

“They felt OK having the race because of the number of people that were there,’’ Hubright said. “The attacks have been two dogs on one person each time. ‘’

In an interview with The State, Holliday said he may not have survived the attack if the other man had not happened upon the brutal event. The dogs stopped attacking and ran away when the man, Marc Miramontes, an off-duty police officer with the Lexington police department, showed up, said Holliday, who worked with Miramontes in law enforcement years ago and sometimes sees him while on runs at Harbison State Forest.

“I remember thinking ‘I’m flagging, I’m getting tired and they are not losing any’’’ energy, Holliday said. “They were getting more aggressive. I think they sensed that I was getting tired. If Marc hadn’t been there, I don’t know what would have happened.’’

Because of the attack, Holliday said he is on antibiotics and will have to undergo a series of rabies shots during the next two weeks.

He spoke with an animal control officer Monday morning. At least one person has indicated he could identify the dogs with pictures taken of them in the area. Holliday said he hopes they are caught because the animals could hurt other people. They have been reported to have attacked several people’s pets in neighborhoods near Harbison State Forest, Holliday said.

The federal prosecutor said he suspects the dogs were not strays but were owned by someone because they appeared well-fed. They could have been trained as hunting dogs, based on how they worked together during the attack, he said.

“They’re strong dogs; they’re not being fed on frogs and crickets,’’ he said.

Harbison State Forest, just nine miles from Columbia’s downtown, attracts numerous visitors and nature lovers. A 2,137-acre greenspace, with more than 18 miles of trails, it is a mecca for families, group daytime excursions and outdoor enthusiasts of all types, from joggers to mountain bikers to canoeists. The biggest recreational state forest in South Carolina, Harbison attracts about 200,000 users annually, Hubright said.

Holliday, an assistant U.S. Attorney in Columbia since 2003, has been on prosecution teams that have sent some of South Carolina’s most notorious criminals to prison, including fraudster and convicted killer Alex Murdaugh. Although state prosecutors persuaded a jury to convict Murdaugh of the double murders of his wife and son, Holliday and two other federal prosecutors secured Murdaugh’s guilty plea for numerous cases of fraud.

Holliday also prosecuted top SCANA and Westinghouse Electric officials for criminal charges related to the failure of the effort to build two new nuclear reactors at the V.C. Summer plant in Fairfield County. Additionally, he and his colleagues have focused on wildlife crimes, as well as on illicit dog fighting rings.

Dogs stalked prosecutor

Details of the attack Saturday are chilling.

A distance runner for 40 years who regularly jogs the trails at Harbison State Forest near his home, Holliday said he was more than a quarter mile into a run through the forest about 7:30 a.m. Saturday when he heard two dogs barking to his left, 15 feet away.

As he looked over, he saw the pit-bull-like dogs advancing and beginning to circle him, as if they were a team preparing for an attack. Pit bulls are often considered unpredictable and are responsible for many attacks on people across the country.

Typically, dogs that bark at joggers will run away or calm down when the jogger makes noise and yells at them, said Holliday, who has run in distance races across the world, including in Africa and Jamaica, and who is a graduate of the U.S. Army Ranger School.

But the Harbison dogs were different. They came after him as he tried to scare them off, he said.

While one animal would bark, the other would lunge at him, Holliday said. The dogs inflicted wounds by biting, then tearing at his flesh, he said.

“Once they were circling, one of them was always trying to be in front of me, while the other one got behind me,’’ he said. “In whichever way I was looking, the other dog would launch. I was kind of spinning.’’

He tried to fight the dogs off with a stick and with punches, but they kept coming . The animals weighed anywhere from 75 to 90 pounds, he said. Hitting them was like “hitting a concrete block,’’ he said.

Holliday, who weighs a lean 185 pounds, said he doubts someone smaller could have held the dogs off. He estimates the attack occurred for about five minutes.

Holliday, a married father of three grown children, said it will be hard to forget what happened over the weekend on what he expected was little more than a routine jog.

“As bad as the physical injuries are, in a couple of weeks, that’s going to be fine,’’ he said. “But mentally, trying to get back to the point where you feel comfortable running by yourself, I don’t know. The sense of helplessness is not something I ever want to

experience again.’’

U.S. Attorney Bryan Stirling said Monday that Holliday’s colleagues are relieved that he survived, “Everyone was shocked to learn of this attack, and we are thankful that he’s going to be okay. He’s very lucky someone else came along and called 911.”

This story has been updated with comments from Columbia Police Chief Skip Holbrook, U.S. Attorney Brian Stirling, jogger Connor McNeill and the S.C. Forestry Commission.

This story was originally published July 14, 2025 at 9:35 AM.