Police said 40-year-old Roxanne A. Peters allowed her tenant's two pit bulls to roam free Thursday evening before one of the dogs attacked the child in the 2000 block of Green Street.
Peters, who has Harrisburg and Mechanicsburg addresses, had visited the tenant to assess a repair and reportedly become enraged when one of the tenant's dogs urinated on a hardwood floor, police said.
She opened the front door and let the dogs out, allowing them to run into the street where one of them attacked the boy as he was walking by, police said. The child was bitten on his arm, leg and body.
A 72-year-old neighbor saw the attack and was able to wrestle the dog from the boy. The dog then attacked the man and tore his clothing, but did not injure him, police said.
The boy, who was not identified, was taken to Harrisburg Hospital for treatment of cuts and puncture wounds and later transferred to Penn State Hershey Medical Center. As of Friday afternoon, he was recuperating at home, according to police.
The dog that bit the boy was placed in a cage and the other was leashed to a radiator while officers were investigating the incident. The leashed dog broke free and rushed at the officers, who then shot and killed the dog, police said.
The dog carcass was taken to the state Department of Agriculture for testing. The other dog was taken to the Humane Society for observation, police said.
"They are trained to respond accordingly and unfortunately they had to respond the way they did," Mayor Linda Thompson said of the officers who shot the dog.
Neighbors told abc27 News the dog that attacked the boy had attacked a pregnant woman a week earlier. They said the owners were waiting for animal control to pick up the dog.
"This is so sad, the fact that the people that own the dog called animal control over a week ago and have been waiting for them to come pick up the dog," neighbor Hanniel Craton said. "They are aware that it was a problem, they were trying to fix it and animal control still had not come."
"I think its really sad that the department is so under funded and understaffed that they couldn't take care of it before this kid got attacked," he said.
Police said they received a report of a problem with a pit bull in the same area about a week ago, but could not confirm that it was the same dog.
Anyone with information concerning the case is asked to call Harrisburg police at (717) 255-3114.
(abc27 - Oct 12, 2012)
