A 9-year-old girl died Sunday, hours after she was mauled by a pit bull while playing with friends in the backyard of an Elmont house, Nassau police said.
It could be the first known fatal attack by a pit bull on Long Island. A search of Newsday archives dating to the 1940s found no records of a similar death.
Nassau police and neighbors described a harrowing scene as attempts to free the girl from the dog's clenched jaws failed and her two friends ran into the front of the house on Holland Avenue screaming for help.
Det. Michael Bitsko said the mother of one of the girl's friends tried unsuccessfully to get the dog to let go of the child.
Bitsko said officers had surrounded the house and one went inside. When one officer came out in the backyard, she drew the dog's attention, and when the animal charged, the officer fired several shots. It was not known why the dog attacked, he said.
He declined to describe the girl's wounds. "I'm not going to get into the details of what took place, but it was a violent attack," Bitsko said.
A neighbor who lives next door and declined to give her name said two girls ran into the street screaming for help as the attack continued.
"I just saw them run on the sidewalk. . . . Everybody on the block tried to help, it was really horrible," the woman told reporters. "When the ambulance came, they put her on the stretcher and put a mask over her face. . . . It's a horrible tragedy."
Roshni Subkaran, 19, a college student who lives with her family on the other side of the street, said she heard a dog barking and loud voices outside sometime after 10 a.m.
"There was a lot of commotion," she said. "Then, three shots went off and the barking stopped."
Minutes after the gunshots she saw a child being taken out on a stretcher into an ambulance.
"We didn't know how serious it was," Subkaran said. "It shocked me. I had no idea she was going to die."
She said the dog was taken away around 2 p.m. by animal control.
Bitsko said the pit bull belonged to Carlyle Arnold Jr., 29, who lives in an upstairs apartment at the house.
Arnold was arrested at the scene on an unrelated charge of violation of an order of protection, police said. No charges were filed in connection with the dog attack.
"I'm sorry for what happened to the little girl," said Carlyle Arnold Sr., father of the dog's owner. "This is crazy, I'm getting off of work and now I'm like in a horror scene."
The girl's death at Franklin Hospital in Valley Stream at 1:42 p.m. came less than four hours after the pit bull attacked her.
Anthony Tyron Jett, 53, said he lives at the house and described the dog, named Kane, as "gentle" and said it would let you put a hand in its mouth.
Upon learning of the girl's death, Jett said, "Oh my God, oh my God" and held his head in his hands.
"He was a good dog, that's what I don't understand."
"he was a good dog..." isn't that what it always said about psychopaths? They too are only doing what comes naturally... killing... not that they can't do it with a gentle smile, of course.
It's a pitbull; selectively bred to make them the most vicious fighters possible, to kill without distraction until the victim is thought to be dead or die trying. Over 600 years of selective breeding to do just what it did. These people just keep wondering why these babysitter dogs just keep on mauling and killing and as long as there are passionate people on the disinformation side of the controversy, children, elderly, owners and beloved pets will continue to die horrible deaths. One innocent human life is greater than the sum total of all the pitbulls and their mixes on the planet.
"Bitsko said officers had surrounded the house and one went inside. When one officer came out in the backyard, she drew the dog's attention, and when the animal charged, the officer fired several shots. It was not known why the dog attacked, he said."
Not sure about 600 yrs, but certainly Pitbulls, as well as many other breeds, have been selectively breed for aggression. Due to human ignorance/arrogance/greed in my opinion, as most dogs have an instinctive survival/protection drive. There is no earthly reason to intentionally breed that into man's best friend. But, there is also the training, like agitation training, ie: 'teaching' a dog to be a killer, when survival requires expending the least amount of energy necessary. There is also training to help direct the seemingly 'over aggressive' types. And no doubt, there are those whose innate nature does not allow for them to assimilate into human society. Unfortunately.
It is sad to see that racism has infected the species 'Canis lupus familiaris'. And even more so that the species Homo sapiens have infected them. Instead of learning from them, we have molded them into our image. The human species, collectively has done a great disservice to the canine species and the collective canine soul.
afflicted by H. sapiens? It was from H. sapien's love of blood sport that these dogs were even bred and the bloody sport continues to this day. Move along folks, nothing much to see here, just resurrection of bloody entertainment.
"he was a good dog..." isn't that what it always said about psychopaths? They too are only doing what comes naturally... killing... not that they can't do it with a gentle smile, of course.