A dog killed a 5-year-old boy at a home on Chicago’s South Side Monday night, despite the efforts of several people to intervene.
Brad Powers, a spokesman for the Commission on Animal Care and Control, told the Chicago Tribune the dog was "large and muscular," with "features consistent with the Dogo Argentino breed."
James W. Nevills III was visiting the home where the dog lived, police said, when neighbors heard his mother screaming for help around 9:30 p.m. A neighbor said she could see the dog holding the child by the neck.
Neighbors said several men ran to the scene and began beating the dog, hitting it with a metal chair, throwing rocks at it and stabbing it, but the dog would not drop the child.
Marquis Lewis, 16, told WLS-TV he hit the dog with a brick and his brother, 19-year-old Lamar, hit the dog with a pole, and the dog finally died.
But the child’s injuries were already severe and he was unresponsive when an ambulance arrived, according to the report. He died later at a hospital.
The boy’s death was ruled an accident.
Lamar Lewis said the dog’s owner was not home at the time of the dog attack and returned only after the child was on his way to the hospital.
Lewis said the owner asked, “Why y’all let the dog out?” when he arrived.
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