Michigan: Little girl, 4, attacked and killed by Doberman Pinscher that her parents had just purchased

MICHIGAN --  A 4-year-old girl was attacked and killed by a dog, apparently on the same day it was acquired by the family.

It happened Sunday afternoon about 4 p.m. in St. Joseph County, Michigan, at a home near Fish Lake. The dog was said to be a large Doberman (or Doberman mix).

“They (the victim’s family) had just got that dog, probably hadn't had it five minutes,” said Becky Davis. “Yeah, the man had just left and she called him on the telephone and he come running right back here in his car.”

Rebecca said the Doberman attacked Kiyana in the little girl’s home. She was giving the dog a treat, which it sniffed a few times. They said it was on the third sniff that the dog  lunged at her and bit her in the throat, not letting go. Kenneth, 85, said it tossed her around like a “rag doll.”

“When they brought Kiyana out the house, I saw her mother had lots and lots of blood,” Kenneth said about Jacey McNeal Wolkins. “Any blood, it was from Kiyana.”

“The man that brought the dog, he’s the one that started CPR first,” said Kenneth. “Then other people came. Centerville police came.”

“When they found that she passed, they covered up with a blanket,” said neighbor Kenneth Davis, who ran outside after hearing cries for help.

“They put her on the ground, they started doing CPR and she was turning blue, her face was,” said Kenneth’s wife Angela Davis.

They tried to revive her, Rebecca said, but nothing worked. The man who sold her the dog was crying.

Rebecca said during the attack, Jacey got in between the dog and her daughter, struggling to get the dog off of her. She was bit on her hands and neck in the battle. But she didn’t care. She sat near her daughter as people examined her body.

“It’s something nobody should see. Nobody,” said Rebecca. “I mean nobody.”

Jacey's wounds were cleaned at the hospital that night (the news report said she had "serious injuries" to her hands and had also been bitten in the neck). She was released Monday morning. Family and friends have since started fundraising via a YouCaring page. Rebecca said Kiyana’s loss has already made a major impact on them.

“It doesn’t seem possible this happened like it has. And that was just last night,” said Kenneth Davis.

“She was a beautiful, beautiful little girl,” added Becky Davis.

WDIV, the NBC affiliate out of Detroit, spoke with Kiyana’s father Monday. Gerald Johnson said he is clinging to his daughter’s memory through videos of the two of them together.

“She was our world. That’s my little baby girl,” Johnson said. “My baby girl will always be loved and we’re going to treasure all the videos and the pictures that we have of her.”

 

He told WDIV his daughter loved animals and had dreamed of becoming a veterinarian.

Today, the dog was being held at the St. Joseph County Animal Control facility. Michigan law requires dogs involved in bite cases be held at least 10 days.

(FOX17 - Oct 24, 2016)