According to Akron police, it happened after 8 p.m. Wednesday in the area of Dietz and Stanton avenues on the city's east side.
Authorities said a group of kids were playing outside when the dog got loose. Most of the children jumped on the top of cars to avoid the dog, but some weren't as fortunate.
Police said a 6-year-old suffered serious bites to his head, leg and buttocks after being bitten by the dog. Dispatchers received numerous 911 calls about the attack, including one from a frantic man as he watched it all unfold.
Caller: "There's a pit bull biting people. Please hurry. It just bit a baby. Just get somebody out here please. This dog is gonna kill somebody."
Dispatcher: "Did the dog attack somebody?"
Caller: "It's attacking someone right now!"
A woman called dispatchers saying one of the dog owners just got bit in the eye. Clearly upset, she got more and more angry at the situation over the phone.
Caller: "The dog owners are out in the street. They've got spectators egging them on going up Dietz Avenue. I need somebody here. I need them now or I'm gonna have to get a gun and try and shoot these dogs and heaven help if I hit a person because they're gonna kill a person. Get your a** out here and get somebody here!"
Dispatcher: "Ma'am, I'm not the one coming. You don't need to swear at me. We will get somebody out there."
Caller: "I need somebody here now or you're gonna have somebody dead!"
Dispatcher: "I understand that. We have somebody on the way."
The caller said the dog owners were in the middle of the street and "if they don't get hit by traffic, or the pedestrians don't beat the hell out of them, then the dogs are gonna kill them while they're fighting."
Neighbors from several houses away could hear the commotion.
Caller: "There's a guy and a woman screaming for help, somebody call the police."
Dispatcher: "There's a dog attacking people."
One more caller more calmly talked with police about what she witnessed.
"A kid just got mauled by a pit bull. The people can't control the dog, it's trying to get loose. The husband threw the boy in the car....to take him to the hospital because he wasn't moving. The dog is still going crazy in the street."
Not long after the attack, dispatchers got a call from Akron City Hospital where the 6-year-old mauled boy was taken. The person on the other line told authorities the young boy said a stranger brought him to the hospital and left.
Police are investigating the claim.
Meanwhile, the suspect's 14-year-old son and the suspect's 35-year-old girlfriend were taken to area hospitals, after being bitten while trying to hold down the dog until its owner, Andre Brown, arrived.
Brown was cited for letting the dog run loose. The dog remains in the neighborhood.
(from the video clip): Andre Brown has a 20-year criminal history for felonies.
The dog warden never came out b/c homeowner secured dog in house. A judge will now decide what happens to the pit bull. Spokesperson says it takes a search warrant to go into house to take pit bull as animals are considered property.
(NewsNet5.com - Sept 20, 2012)
