Mauled boy: Keep bad dog away

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — Paul J. Richardson Jr.’s grandmother said he wants a black pit bull to come home from the dog pound but not the tan one that attacked him.

Letricia Jones said her 6-year-old grandson is healing but had to return to St. Elizabeth Health Center on Tuesday for a checkup.

She was called Sunday night and went to the hospital after learning that the boy, called “P.J.,” had been bitten on the face, neck and left arm at his father’s 1416 Republic Ave. residence on the East Side.

The black and tan pit bulls belong to the child’s father, Paul Richardson Sr. A Mahoning County deputy dog warden called to the house Sunday took the animals to the pound.

“P.J. was on oxygen at the hospital but doing OK,” Jones said. “He said he wants the black one, Savage, to come home.”

Somehow, the tan dog got out of the backyard pen around 8 p.m. Sunday and started biting the little boy who had been playing in the yard. The black pit bull usually stays in the house.

William Greer and James Rozenblad, who live nearby, heard screams and reacted immediately to beat the dog away. Greer’s wife, Wanda, who witnessed the attack, said Sunday night that the dog was rolling the child like a tumbleweed.

The boy’s father was not home at the time of the attack, but his stepmother was. Jones said her son has custody of the boy.