Lorain Police shoot pit bull that attacked 6 year old boy

OHIO -- A pit bull attacked a 6-year-old boy just before 4 p.m. Monday outside a home at 675 W. 13th St.

Lorain Police Sgt. Marty Carreon said the pit bull came out of a house at 688 W. 13th St. and attacked the boy — whom the Morning Journal is not naming at this time — who was playing across the street with a group of children.

The boy’s family members ran out of the house to pull the pit bull off of the boy when the family’s black Labrador retriever began fighting with the pit bull, Carreon said.

“Once the black dog was tased, it started to walk back up the porch to the house when the other followed,” Carreon recalled.

As the family tried to save the boy, neighbors also ran into the street to assist, he said.

“It was chaotic for a while,” Carreon said.

When police arrived on scene, they used a Taser on both dogs before an officer shot the pit bull to death.

Carreon said police used the Taser on the pit bull four times before they had to shoot it.

The boy’s aunt, Kristen Tucker, 27, said her nephew suffered a gash on his leg. She said the pit bull had her nephew by the leg when she and other relatives ran to pull the dog off.

“We thought he was going to go for his throat,” the boy’s grandmother, Liz Ellis, said. “I started hollering we needed help because they weren’t getting their dog off the kid.”

Two neighbor girls also ran to the porch to help the boy, Ellis said. One girl took a chair and hit the pit bull, she said.

Ellis said she’s seen the pit bull tied up in the neighbor’s yard at 688 W. 13th St., but the neighbor is denying ownership of the dog.

“If you’ve got a dog and you know it bites, you’ve got to keep it locked down,” Ellis said.

When the alleged owner of the pit bull attempted to intervene, the man suffered a hand injury. Lorain Police Capt. Roger Watkins said the man “may or may not lose his finger.”

LifeCare put the boy on a stretcher before transporting him to the hospital.

“He’s gashed up,” Ellis said. “His leg is wide open.”

The Labrador retriever retreated into the house with the family, who has lived on West 13th Street for less than four months.

Tucker said she was relieved the Labrador retriever wasn’t shot, too.

“My dog’s like my kid,” she said. “He’s got a Taser stuck in his back and a tear on his head. If my dog wouldn’t have came out, my nephew would be dead right now.”

(The Morning Journal - Jan 14, 2014)