2 Boys Hospitalized After Mauling by Pit Bulls

Two brothers who were mauled by their family’s pit bull during breakfast are expected to recover from their wounds, hospital officials said Monday.

The boys were in the kitchen of their Willowbrook home Sunday when 5-year-old Darryl Houston opened the door, went into the backyard and was charged by Coco, one of the family’s three pit bulls.

The dog latched onto the child’s face with his jaws and mauled him, cutting his face and head severely, Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials said.

Coco left Darryl bleeding in the backyard and bounded into the house, where he began mauling 1-year-old Tyler, who was eating breakfast in his high chair.

The boy’s father, Terrell Williams, had been in the back end of the yard with the other dogs but came running when he heard the children’s screams.

He called the dog off and phoned 911.

When paramedics arrived and began treating the boys, they were charged by the family’s female pit bull, Sheba.

Neighbors and family members later told police that pit bull was not vicious and was beloved by children around the neighborhood, but animal control deputies shot it dead to protect paramedics.

Darryl suffered the more serious wounds and was reported in guarded condition at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center. Tyler was in stable condition.

“I feel better knowing they are going to be OK,” their father said. “They’re in a lot better shape even after 24 hours.”

Williams, 29, added that he plans never to keep dogs again. “Every time I see Darryl’s face, I get flashbacks,” he said. “I don’t even want a poodle in my house. I am all dogged-out.”

Sheriff’s investigators said they may press criminal charges against Williams if they determine he was negligent in protecting his boys from the vicious dogs.

Sheriff’s Det. John O’Hara said he could have taken Williams into custody Sunday but decided not to because Williams was “obviously totally distressed” and was cooperating with investigators.

Williams told investigators that Coco and the other male pit bull, Polo, were not actually his dogs, but had been staying with him for the last few months because their owner had moved away and was not able to take the dogs with him.

The two dogs, which were bred from Sheba, will be isolated for a few days to determine that they do not have rabies and then euthanized, animal control officials said.

“The father is completely despondent,” O’Hara said. “He was wanting us to shoot them both yesterday.” Williams kept all three dogs in an enclosed area in the back of the family’s large backyard of a big house on 188th Street that his grandfather built.

While feeding the dogs Sunday morning, Williams said that he thought Polo and Coco were acting unusually aggressive and he decided to chain them up.

He was in the process of chaining Polo and did not notice when Coco ran out toward the family’s back door, O’Hara said.

When he heard his children scream, he dropped the chain and went running. The boys’ mother was not home at the time of the attack, O’Hara said.

A few months ago, Coco attacked and killed Regallo, a Chihuahua that lived across the street, O’Hara said.

“I came home and buried him,” said Armado Martinez, the Chihuahua’s owner. He added that his son, who witnessed the incident, was so scared by the attack that he has been afraid to go outside. But he says he does not blame Williams, who he said took special care to make sure the dogs were locked up.

“Accidents do happen,” Martinez said, noting that he once owned a pit bull himself, but gave that dog away after it attacked another one of his Chihuahuas.

More than 1,850 people reported dog bites in the first three months of this year in Los Angeles County, said Dr. Patrick Ryan, chief of the county’s Veterinary Public Health and Rabies Control Department. Authorities believe that many more people have been bitten, but many did not report the attack to the county, Ryan said. Although the department does not keep statistics on the severity of injuries or which breed of dog is involved in the bites, the most common serious dog bites are from pit bulls, German Shepherds, and Rottweilers, Ryan said.

“Most dog bites do not come from some stray dog,” Ryan said. “You’re usually attacked by a family pet or a neighbor’s pet.”

Children and the elderly are the most common victims, Ryan said, because they cannot get away as quickly.

“There’s a lot of really nice pit bulls,” Ryan said. “But they were bred for fighting with bulls. It’s somewhat in their nature to attack, and they have very powerful jaws.”