Dog Mauls Boy to Death on Chicago’s South Side

A 5-year-old Chicago boy from the city’s South Side was mauled to death Monday by a pit bull, which residents said repeatedly attacked the child even as they tried to intervene.

The Cook County Medical Examiner’s office reported that little James Nevils died from “multiple sharp and blunt force injuries to the head and neck.” The death was ruled an accident.

“I hear someone yelling, ‘He has my baby! Somebody please help me!’ When I looked, I thought someone was fighting,” a witness said. “When I looked closer, the dog had the child by the neck and shoulder.”

Witnesses said that the dog could not be stopped from its vicious attack.

“They started stabbing it. They threw rocks at it. They dropped this big rock on it. They didn’t wait for the dog to turn around and attack them. They just started attacking it,” White said.

The dog was fatally injured, but the boy still died of his grievous wounds.

Neighbors, though, criticized the owner of the dog.

Lamar Lewis, 19, told ABC Chicago, “All I heard was, ‘Why y’all let the dog out?’ Because he knew what kind of dog he had. So them letting the dog out, he knew what was possible to happen.”

Thus far, no charges have been filed against the dog’s owner, and no tickets or fines were issued.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston, or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.