Legal Question in Personal Injury in California

friend's brother's dog escaped from his leash and began to play, leading us on a 30 min chase back to the house. On the way, another smaller dog across the street (without a collar) on a public sidewalk between the entrances to 2 gated homes began to bark at my friend's dog, and started into the street toward him, still barking. My friend's dog wagged his tail and ran to chase him. The two dog tussled and the smaller dog ran into on of the wide-open gates to the rightmost property. The homeowner and my friend began to try to catch and separate the dogs. The homeowner threw objects (ceramic pots etc) at my friend's brother's dog and was bitten by his own dog trying to separate them. My friends dog became afraid when he was hit and ran to the other side of the yard. He had NOT been aggressive or broken the smaller dog's skin at all. My friend's dog is very big and very sweet. He laid low to the ground and i was finally able to get his leash back on him and lead him to my friend's car (who had just pulled up). The homeowner returned his dog to the house and I went to see that he was ok. We noticed my friend's dog had a deep wound by his eye about the size of a quarter. The man said his dog was ok, and the his bite had come from his own small dog. the woman of the house was backing out of the driveway and stopped to tell me this was the second time she had to take her little dog to the hospital because a larger dog attacked him on her property. I asked where the dog was and she said he was in the house with her husband. I asked why she wasn't taking him tot he vet and she said "do you want to see him??" and i said yes please. she pulled back into the driveway and her husband came out and told my friend and i that his dog was fine and he was fine. The wife began to insist it was awful and he told her that the dog was laying down because it was terrified and in shock and would be okay after it rested. I asked him to show me the dog so he brought the scared, nearly catatonic dog outside. The dog was blinking, breathing and moving all of its limbs a bit. There was no blood or any kind of wound visible on the white dog. The man proceeded to hold the dog's midsection and flop it back and fourth repeatedly, which scared me. The wife went into hysterics at that point asking him to stop and he did it several more times. She wanted to take the dog to the vet, so he told her to calm down and he would drive. we gave them my friend's number and they all got into their car and drove away. We took my friend's brother's dog home, and went walking to wait for their call. the house is about a 4 min walk from theirs. we were gone about 10 mins and when we walked back by the husband was home in the driveway but the car was gone. About 20 mins later we had a missed call from the woman. we returned it and she told us her dog had died and hung up. she has been harassing us for days and doesn't want us to come to speak with her and her husband. She calls to threaten us with a law suit, and tells us that the brother's dog is going to die.. she has been doing this for 3 days now. I don't honestly believe that the dog is dead at all, and I don't believe that if it is the injuries were not caused or worsened byt he man shaking the dog around like that. I am at a loss and not sure what to do. Their dog should have been inside their yard, not in the street and not goign after other dogs. at the same time, I know my friend's dog wasn't on his leash (although it was certainly NOT due to gross negligence as we did not know he could get his collar off like that). We want to see the vet bill and cause of death. There isn't an animal hospital that close to the neighborhood that they could have gotten there, had proceedings, and returned home. the woman is now insisting that my friend's brother's dog killed her dog ON HER PROPERTY, in front of her daughter. Her daughter hadn't been outside at all and the dog died after we had already left. What should we do? We cannot afford to go to court at all. There is no money. I would have to help pay for this and I can't afford it either and I truly believe their dog died due to their own negligence. my friend's brother's dog wasn't being malicious, nor did he exhibit signs of anger or agression. He is very large and if he had been trying to kill that other dog, he would have instantly. He is huge. He has also never attacked another dog unprovoked and has NEVER attacked a human or been aggressive towards one. Help please, we're in over our heads.... Do we need to take action? Should we be scared? Thank you for taking the time to read this.

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