Toddler killed by dogs; godmother injured trying to protect him
1 August 2018
Jaevon Torres
“Christina Bledsoe, 40, said that before police arrived, she heard a woman screaming outside the home: "They have the baby! They have the baby!"”
“Bledsoe ran over to the woman, whom she didn't know. "They're killing the baby!" the woman said.”
“Bledsoe said the main door of the home was open. She opened the outer door and saw another woman and the child being attacked by pit bulls in the living room. One dog lunged toward the front door, and Bledsoe said she quickly shut the outer door.”
“Other neighbors rushed over to help. Jason Rash, 41, said he ran over to the house and tried to distract the dogs. "I was banging on the door," said Rash, adding that he threw a broomstick, dustpan, and shovel at the dogs.”
“Rash said a woman whom he understood to be the boy's aunt was lying on top of the toddler trying to protect him. She was getting bit, too, he said.“
“When police officers arrived, they opened the outer front door in an attempt to go in, Bledsoe said, but quickly slammed it shut because of the attacking dogs. Then they had to make sure they didn't shoot the child, she said.”
“She said once she heard police shooting through openings between the metal bars in the outer front door, she went back into her house and told her children, ages 8 and 12, to stay inside.”
Relative calls toddler’s fatal mauling by dogs in Port Richmond ‘a freak accident’ (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
“Officers fired into the home upon seeing two dogs mauling the little boy. There were three more in the home.”
"”They could clearly see the child laying in the middle of the living room floor and said the dogs were around the child, attacking the child, and that's when they had to take immediate action," Philadelphia Police Chief Inspector Scott Small said.”
“Police fired seven shots at the dogs, killing one of them and wounding two others.”
“This allowed officers to go in and grab the badly wounded child.”
“The boy was already unconscious and severely wounded. He was rushed to St. Christopher's Hospital for Children where he later died.”
“Officials say the boy's 23-year-old aunt, who was babysitting the child, was also injured while trying to protect him.”
Prosecutors weigh charges in deadly dog attack in Port Richmond (ABC)
“A police source ... identified the woman who was trying to protect the child as Rebecca Olan, 27. He said she lived in the home and was the owner of the pit bulls. She was the boy's godmother but not a relative, the source said, adding that the boy and his mother lived elsewhere in the city.”
“Upstairs at the time of the attack were Olan's 16-year-old cousin and a 25-year-old woman, whose relationship to Olan was not immediately known, the police source said."
Toddler ID’d in fatal mauling by pit bulls in Port Richmond rowhouse (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
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