Dog Fatally Shot After Attacking 7-Year-Old Boy
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – A man from the city's Esplen section does not want to be called a hero, even though he saved his 7-year-old neighbor from being mauled by a pit bull.
Neighbors in the 200-block of Radcliffe Street in Esplen heard a 14-year-old boy screaming for help after a pit bull attacked his 7-year-old brother inside their home. A woman who lives a few doors away told her husband immediately.
"I told my husband to come outside and to bring his gun, that a kid is being attacked by a dog, and he ran up," the victim's neighbor said.
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According to the neighbor, who did not want to be identified, when her husband went inside the house with his gun, he found the approximately 80-pound pit bull on top of the little boy with the boy's face in its mouth.
She says her husband had to think quickly on how to disable the animal without wounding the child.
"He did it in the rear and that made the dog release," she said, "but then the dog kept coming. And then he shot the dog in the upper body."
The woman says she heard two gunshots and seconds later, her husband walked out of the house with the little boy in his arms.
"He kept screaming that he was going to die," she said. "And we kept reassuring him that he wasn't going to die."
The child had severe lacerations on his face and was taken to Children's Hospital where he's listed in stable condition.
Police say the pit bull belongs to a friend of the boys' mother. The 7-year-old was being watched by his older brother. At the time of the attack, their mother and her male friend were not in the house.
As for the neighbor, police say he has a legal permit to own a weapon.
"He's glad that he was able to do it in order to save the kid's life," the neighbor said. "We have children and ones around the same age as this little boy. It kind of hits home."