Pit Bulls Maul Boy; $10,000 Offered for Their Recovery

While a 10-year-old boy fights for his life after a savage attack by three pit bulls, the dogs’ owner says he panicked and dumped the dogs when he thought they had killed the boy.

Now, police are offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to recovery of the dogs.

Shawn Jones was riding his new bike in nearby Richmond when the dogs mauled him and left him for dead. His ears were torn off, and he suffered serious wounds to his head, face and arms.

Shawn spent most of Monday night in surgery, but his ears could not be reattached, said Dr. James Betts, chief of surgery at Children’s Hospital Oakland. If he survives, the boy faces years of plastic surgery and may never fully recover, Betts said.

The boy was still in critical condition Wednesday.

Witnesses told police that after the attack, one of the dogs’ owners retrieved the pit bulls from the area where Shawn lay on the ground, loaded the dogs into his car and drove away.

Benjamin Moore, 27, later turned himself in but has refused to cooperate, Sgt. Enos Johnson said. Earlier, he told police he let the dogs loose.

“I got rid of them,” Moore told KRON-TV. “I was so in a panic I just wanted to get rid of them.”

Police said they believe Moore never released the dogs and that someone is hiding them.

Moore and his girlfriend, Jacinda Lynn Knight, 33, are being held on $115,000 bail for suspicion of felony mayhem and failing to exercise care with dogs trained to fight, attack or kill.