Hospital releases boy mauled by dog

YOUNGSTOWN — A boy mauled by one of his father’s pit bulls is out of the hospital.

Paul Richardson Jr., 6, was discharged from St. Elizabeth Health Center on Sunday, a few hours after the dog attack at his father’s Republic Avenue home.

Police said the boy had cuts to his head, face and upper arms.

The boy was playing in the back yard of his father’s house around 8 p.m. when the pit bull escaped from his outdoor cage and attacked, two neighbors who witnessed the incident told police.

The two neighbors hit the dog with sticks, police said, until it released the child.

The boy and his mother was at the house of his father who was out of town at the time of attack, police said. The father has weekend visitation rights, police said.

The dog was captured and taken by the Mahoning County dog warden.