VIRGINIA -- A ten year-old boy is in the hospital after he was attacked by a pit bull.
It happened late last night in the 4700 block of Hillbrook in Eastern Henrico.
Police shot the dog twice and it was later euthanized.
The injured boy is related to the dog's owner. The owner says he has superficial bite wounds all over his body.
The owner says she was trying to find the dog a new home before it attacked this boy.
The owner told us she left the dog in a utility room while she left to pick up her son from a high school football game.
Her daughter and ten year-old nephew cracked open the door to peak at the dog and that's when it attacked.
Joe Williams lives next door. He says he told his neighbor the dog had to go after it bit someone else.
"She should have gone and got rid of them a long time ago," Williams said. "She could have avoided all of this."
He says he's scared to come outside when the dog is around.
"I knew it was going to happen eventually one of these days I," he said. "(I) hate that it was a little 10 year-old boy."
The owner owns another pit bull but says she will never get another one after this incident. She says she was trying to give the dog a chance.
Ervetta Garcia says the second dog bit both of her children this summer.
"I'm not surprised," Garcia said. "They were like that. They tried to attack my mother, my neighbor."
She says she's relieved there's one less pit bull living in her neighborhood.
"It's sad to say because I'm a dog lover," she said. "But I think (my children are) a little bit more at ease now."
The dog's owner says she's thankful her nephew is okay.
Most seem to agree this could have been much worse.
"Biting up a boy like that, it could have killed him," Williams said.
The boy is expected to be released from the hospital in a few days.
(WWBT - Nov 12, 2011)
