A grandmother’s dog kills a 7-month-old baby in Dayton, Ohio, in an “accidental” death. This is the third case of a child being mauled by dogs over the weekend. The infant, Jonathon Quarles, Jr., was mauled by an American Staffordshire terrier owned by his step-grandmother Sunday afternoon, Reuters reports .
Dayton Police Department responded to a 911 call in which a neighbor of the woman babysitting Quarles told police she came to his door holding the baby and he wasn’t breathing. By the time paramedics arrived, the child was unresponsive and pronounced dead at the scene, says Chris Williams, superintendent of investigation for the Dayton police.
The dog that killed the baby has been removed from the owner’s home.
Datyton Daily News provides specific details revolving around the infant’s dog attack. The boy was reportedly attacked and killed inside a home in the 2200 block of Riverside Drive around 12:24 pm. The step-grandmother was the one babysitting Quarles. She said she was watching him for the day when her dog suddenly snapped and attacked the child.
The child’s name hasn’t been released, but the Montgomery County coroner’s investigator did reveals that he was from out of state.
An animal control officer took custody of the Staffordshire terrier and homicide detectives were called to the scene in order to investigate the incident.
As detectives went about their investigation, the grandmother was in complete distress and needed help walking. A number of people showed up at the residence displaying emotions of sadness and anger. They all appeared to be close friends and family, police said.
In an updated report out regarding Quarles autopsy, the coroner ruled the boy’s mauling death as accidental. His grandmother took her eyes off him for a few seconds and that’s when the dog killed the baby, WDTSN 2 reports.
A Dayton police report from June 3 reveals that the same dog attacked a leashed Beagle on a walk with its owner. The Beagle was bitten on its legs before it managed to escape. The owner didn’t want to press charges against the violent dog’s owner, but wanted the attack on record.
Disturbingly, there were two other dog attacks against young children as well over the weekend — both boys in this instance, too. The two boys were also 4 years of age and mauled by pit bulls. The events were totally unrelated, but very similar in circumstances. One of the 4-year-old’s was at his mother’s friend’s house in Delaware when three of her dogs killed him. The child had reportedly been around the dogs numerous times before. The other 4-year-old was mauled and killed in Florida by his aunt and uncle’s two dogs. All dogs in these attacks were put down.
[Image via WDTN ]
