Charlotte boy killed by dogs, father faces drug charges
The Associated Press
Apr 17, 2004 : 12:13 am ET
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- An 8-year-old boy was fatally mauled in a fenced back yard by his father's four pit bull dogs as the man and his girlfriend sat inside the house, police said.
Neighbors and a letter carrier heard 8-year-old Roddie Philip Dumas Jr. screaming, but the couple didn't come outside until the boy was already severely injured, authorities and witnesses said.
The boy, who had been spending spring break with his father, died later at Carolinas Medical Center.
No one has been charged in the boy's death, but
Roddie Philip Dumas Sr., 29, was charged late Friday with drug- and weapons-related felonies. Police said the district attorney's office could consider charges ranging from child neglect to murder, though the latter is rare in such cases.
Police said they were investigating why the boy was unsupervised and whether the adults in the house heard him cry for help.
Edward Threatt, who lives across the street, said he heard screams and then silence.
"One had him on his neck. Two had him on the side. And one had him on the leg," said Threatt. "They were pulling on him just like you do a rag doll."
Threatt and his wife, Mary, were doing yard work when they heard screams. Threatt and a mail carrier who had just stopped at their house ran to help. He said the carrier threw his mailbag and then a wooden block about 4 feet long at the dogs, which ran away, and then jumped a chain-link fence to reach the boy.
Neighbors and police said Roddie's father came outside and told the letter carrier to get off his property.
Animal control officers seized the four dogs. It was not clear late Friday whether the dogs have a history of violent behavior.
The city's last fatal dog attack was in 1985, when an 18-month-old boy wandered into a neighbor's back yard where a
pit bull-Labrador retriever mix was chained. The dog was put to death.