NORTH CAROLINA — A 7-year-old boy was injured after a pit bull attacked him at the bus stop Friday morning in Thomasville, deputies said.
Nathan Bean was walking to the bus stop on Big John Road when the dog attacked him around 7:25 a.m., said Crystal Bell, Bean's mother.
Bean suffered seven puncture wounds to an arm and two puncture wounds to a leg, Bell said. He underwent surgery at Brenner Children's Hospital in Winston-Salem and is now recovering, Bell said.
Davidson County investigators said the 9-month-old dog weighing 45 pounds broke free from a chain and went after Bean.
"The dog litterally picked out one child and went after that one child," said Sherry Baker, a family friend.
Baker said another student and the bus driver, Virigina Tysinger, got off the bus and helped pull the dog off Bean. Tysinger also kicked the dog away from the bus, Bell said.
"She saved that little boy. If she hadn't reached down and grabbed a hold of him, he would have never made it," Baker said.
Tysinger declined a request to comment.
A neighbor shot and killed the dog before law enforcement officials arrived, deputies said.
"They chased it with a shovel and tried to get it away, and the neighbor just went ahead and put it down," Baker said.
The dog was taken for rabies tests, which should be available Monday, deputies said.
No charges will be filed against the dog's owner, who was not identified, because no laws were broken, deputies said. No nuisance or vicious dog orders had been issued against the dog's owner, deputies said.
The bus serves Silver Valley Elementary School.
(WGHP - September 23, 2011)
