An 8-year-old girl was seriously injured when a dog attacked her outside her Harnett County home Thursday evening.
A man who lived in the home believed to be where the dog came from was arrested Friday night. According to neighbors, the man owned the dog involved in the attack.
WRAL News has reached out to authorities to confirm if the man arrested was the dog’s owner and to learn about the charges the man is facing.
Brian Ellis, a neighbor who was injured trying to help the child, told WRAL News that he saw an Akita walking without a collar and, moments later, heard a blood-curdling scream.
According to the Harnett County Sheriff’s Office, the girl was playing with friends on Bison Lane.
“A couple of the kids were running down from the the cul de sac screaming that he’s attacking,” Ellis said.
When he got around the corner, Ellis saw the dog attacking the child, whom he identified as Piper.
“I saw the dog, sitting on top of a girl. The dog was sitting on her,” he said. “She was in the plank position
with her hands covering her face, screaming, and the dog was biting her head.”
Ellis and his son tried to get the dog to release the child, but they were unsuccessful.
“Then I called for someone to bring something to kill this thing,” he said.
Ellis and sheriff’s deputies said another neighbor shot and killed the dog.
Ellis, 51, was treated at a local hospital. He had bandages on his arm Friday.
The child was taken to UNC Hospital in Chapel Hill due to the severity of her injuries.
“She had multiple lacerations, puncture wounds on her legs,
buttocks and upper and lower back,” Ellis said. “She suffered multiple fractures to
the skull.”
Ellis and deputies said the dog belonged to a neighbor who had it tied outside, but apparently the dog was able to slip its tether.
“If I would have let go, he would have gone after me. I
would have been much worse than I was,” Ellis said. “This turned into it went from saving
a small child to saving my own life.”
WRAL News spoke to a family at a home in the neighborhood. A man inside the home confirmed the dog was his, but said he disputed the sheriff’s office’s and neighbor’s account of what happened.
The man showed WRAL News security camera footage from the day of the dog attack. In the video, children are seen going into the yard where the dog was. The dog then followed the children out of that area and onto Blakely Court, where it latched onto the girl.
WRAL News reached out to the Harnett County Sheriff’s Office about the video. The sheriff’s office said they could not comment on the video, but that their investigation is ongoing.