Atlanta Dog Attack: Six-Year-Old Victim Logan Braatz ‘Made Everyone Around Him A Better Person’


The family of Logan Braatz, a six-year-old boy from Atlanta who was killed Tuesday in a vicious dog attack, released a statement honoring the young child and recognizing him as a kind and caring boy who “made everyone around him a better person.”

According to a report from local NBC affiliate 11Alive.com, the Atlanta dog attack took place on Tuesday, when Logan Braatz and two other children were attacked by a pit bull owned by a man named Cameron Tucker. While one of the children was eventually released from the hospital after suffering comparatively minor injuries, the pit bull had killed Logan, and left five-year-old Syari Sanders severely injured.

Following the attack, Cameron Tucker was arrested and charged with two counts of reckless conduct, both misdemeanors. Fox 10 Phoenix wrote that one of the charges against the 31-year-old Tucker were upgraded on Wednesday to felony involuntary manslaughter, with bond set at $50,000 for the manslaughter charge, and $20,000 for the earlier reckless conduct charge.

The Braatz family on Wednesday released a statement quoted in full by 11Alive.com, remembering Logan Braatz as an energetic child who loved the local sports teams and took care of the people close to him, even at a very young age.

“As one would imagine, the Braatz family is devastated and attempting to deal with the greatest loss imaginable. Logan was a wonderful little boy—energetic, happy, and full of joy. Logan simply made everyone around him a better person. Logan was a huge sports fan and loved the Atlanta Falcons and Georgia Bulldogs. He was described by his family as an ‘old soul’ who even at the young age of six took care of everyone around him.”

The statement also asked for prayers for Syari Sanders, the five-year-old girl who was injured in the Atlanta dog attack, and Ethan Dowdy, another young boy from the area who was severely hurt after being mauled by two pit bulls on Christmas Eve 2016. Dowdy survived the attack, and, according to Fox 5 Atlanta, had cheated death as the injuries had narrowly missed his main artery. The late-December report also notes that Ethan still “faces months of rehab” and two years of reconstructive surgeries as doctors try to reattach one of his ears, which was torn off in the attack.

“Logan would have wanted us to express our support not only for Syari Sanders as she fights to recover from the injuries she also sustained in this attack, but also to the children, adults, and law enforcement who attempted to help he and Syari during and after the attacks. The family’s thoughts also remain with Ethan Dowdy, who suffered horrific injuries last month in Georgia in a similar dog attack.”

Meanwhile, Syari Sanders continues to recover at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, and is still in stable condition, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The girl was described as being “alert and conscious” despite suffering some horrific injuries.

Angie Smith, who witnessed the Atlanta dog attack, had tried to assist Syari, but realized that there was “nothing (she) could do” to the young child. Another witness, Shamonta Clayton, said he had also seen the aftermath of the attack, and attempted to chase the pitbull away with his gun before it could do inflict any more injuries to the children.

“I picked the child’s body up because his mom couldn’t do nothing but sit there and just cry.”

The death of Logan Braatz and injuries suffered by Syari Sanders serve as examples of how dangerous pit bulls can be when left unsupervised and loose. A fact sheet from DogsBite shows that in 2015, pitbulls contributed to 82 percent of all dog-related deaths in America, with the number of projected fatal maulings caused by the breed expected to reach 338 by 2018, or two decades from the time the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stopped classifying dog attacks by breed.

[Featured Image by Artem Postoev/Shutterstock]

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