N. Side boy attacked by big dog

Vicious dogs on the loose are becoming an increasing problem, a deputy dog warden said.
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YOUNGSTOWN -- A North Side mother said she will be more careful about letting her children play outside after her 10-year-old son was knocked down and bitten by a Rottweiler.
"I'm not concerned, but I am going to be cautious," Erica Jackson said.
Jackson's son Erich was bitten in the buttocks Thursday afternoon by a large, black Rottweiler as he played in his yard on Madera Avenue.
Erich, a fifth-grader at Stambaugh Charter Academy, didn't go to school Friday, but he is doing OK.
Jackson said she located a large, black Rottweiler in her neighborhood Friday afternoon and believes the dog is the one who bit her son.
Dave Nelson, the Mahoning County deputy dog warden, said he spent much of the afternoon knocking on doors in the neighborhood, but he was unable to find the dog.
If the dog isn't located and found to be in good heath within 10 days, the boy will need rabies shots, Nelson said.
"It looked pretty bad," he said of the boy's injury. "He was in some serious pain."
Attacked from behind
Apparently Erich never heard the dog coming. The boy was bitten from behind and might have been totally mauled, but a neighbor heard him screaming and beat the dog off with a shovel.
"He just came up behind him and knocked him over," Nelson said. "That doesn't happen a lot."
Nelson said he and his three employees are having a lot of problems with vicious dogs right now.
"For the last few weeks, it's just been crazy for some reason," Nelson said. "Maybe it's a spring thing."
In addition to searching for the Rottweiler on Friday, dog wardens caught a 220-pound mastiff that was terrorizing the McGuffey Plaza and Stewart Avenue area on the East Side, and they responded to calls of vicious pit bulls at the intersection of Pasadena and Homestead avenues, also on the South Side.
On Wednesday night, a police officer shot and killed a pit bull that tried to attack him.
When the officer knocked at a Mariner Avenue home on the East Side, he heard the dog barking on the side of the house. As the officer ran to his cruiser, a neighbor called out "Look out: Here he comes." The officer turned and drew his gun as the dog charged and fired once, hitting the animal in the upper thigh, reports show.
The officer then used a shotgun to kill the animal.
Nelson said he had been to the Mariner residence several times because of reports the dog was chasing people and attacking other dogs.