Construction worker saves Michigan boy from 4-dog attack
SEVILLE TOWNSHIP, Mich. - Four Rottweilers attacked an 8-year-old boy in central Michigan, and his mother said they would have killed her son if not for a construction worker who came to the rescue.
The dogs attacked Ethan Nokes, of Riverdale, on Monday in the fenced yard of a relative in Gratiot County's Seville Township, state police said. The boy was familiar with the dogs and was in the yard with a brother, police said.
"They were out to kill him, no question," Ethan's mother, Doris Gifford, told CBS affiliate WWTV in Cadillac.
Kenneth Hansen, who owns a construction business and was working nearby, heard Ethan's screams, ran over and jumped the fence into the yard.
"I could see the dogs and I could see a boy with all his clothes off and he was half red with blood and I knew he was in trouble," said Hansen told WWTV.
"They were pulling on him in every direction. In another 30 seconds they would have torn him up," Hansen told The Daily News of Greenville.
Police said Hansen carried Ethan into the house as the dogs were trying to pull the boy from his grasp. The dogs followed them inside.
"I tried to keep my body between the dogs and him ... and they were yanking on him trying to get him away from me," Hansen said.
Ethan, who had 22 bite wounds, was treated at a hospital and released, police said. Hansen wasn't injured during the rescue.
Animal control was holding the dogs, which might be euthanized. The Gratiot County prosecutor's office is expected to review the case for possible charges against the dogs' owner.
"I think that God put him there for a reason I have absolute faith in that," Gifford said. "I don't know. I don't have any other explanation other than it's God's timing and that's how things work."
Hansen said he was grateful to be in a position to help.
"The dogs could have ate me, I didn't care. I couldn't watch -- the kid needed help," Ken said.