Three people, including a two-year-old girl, were hospitalized after a pack of unleashed pit bulls attacked them in Staten Island on Tuesday.
According to NYPD officials, they received a 911 call at around 12:48 p.m. that multiple unleashed dogs were running around the vicinity of a house on 250 York Avenue in the New Brighton neighborhood. Upon arrival, they found a 19-year-old woman, a 13-year-old girl with bite wounds to their legs, and a two-year-old with bite wounds to her arm and torso. All three victims were transported to Richmond University Medical Center in stable condition.
One 15-year-old girl from Staten Island told the New York Daily News that she was also attacked by the unleashed pit bulls while walking home from school.
Six adult pit bulls and four puppies were recovered from the Staten Island home (ABC and NBC video screenshots)
“They just came after me for no reason,” she said. “They just came and bit me. I also fell. I was just trying to run away.”
Another witness told the outlet that one man climbed on top of a vehicle to escape the canines. Some drivers were forced to swerve around the pit bulls on the street.
Police say there were about six adult dogs and four puppies, all pit bulls or pit bull mixes, inside the 250 York Avenue home when the four adult canines managed to escape through an open window.
Following the attack, police arrested Shontay Holland, 29, of Brooklyn, and Rodney Jones, 48, of Staten Island. They were hit with multiple charges, including four counts of reckless endangerment, ten counts of aggravated animal cruelty, and three counts of endangering the welfare of a child.
A police source told the Daily News that officials are investigating allegations that the home was a dog-breeding factory. All ten dogs were taken by NYPD and Animal Care Centers of NYC officials to an animal shelter facility.
The dog attack on Staten Island comes two weeks after two children in Tennessee were tragically killed by a pit bull, who also severely injured their mother.
You can follow Ethan Letkeman on Twitter at @EthanLetkeman.
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