Father Of Boy Killed By Pit Bulls: Same Dogs Bit Daughter; Owners Should Face Murder Charges

DETROIT (WWJ) - The father of the Detroit boy who was mauled to death says the pit bull dog owner should face murder charges.

Four-year-old Xavier Strickland was pulled from his mother's arms by a pack of pit bulls who dragged the boy under a fence and then mauled the preschooler to death.

Clarence Strickland says these same pack of dogs have also attacked and bit his daughter once before.

"She's nine ... and she got bit the first time and they warned the people - they knocked on the door and warned them but they never did nothing about it. Now this tragedy happen - our son gets killed," said Strickland.

He says this tragedy has been surreal.

"They told me 'he's in surgery, he's flat-lined,'" recalls Strickland with a heavy sigh, "once, twice - trying to get him living. I kind of knew in my heart he wasn't going to make it."

Wednesday, a neighbor, Yolanda Samuels, described the scene of the terrifying event on Bayliss Street — near the Lodge Freeway and Linwood.

She called 911 after hearing the boy's mother's cries.

"One of (the dogs) grabbed the baby from her and drug the baby under the fence," Samuels told WWJ's Stephanie Davis. "The dogs started mauling on the baby, and when we came out — we were getting ready to go somewhere — she said, 'Miss Lala, they've got my baby!'"

No charges have been filed yet in the case. The little boy was mauled as he walked with his mother to school yesterday.