VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. (Gray News) – An 8-year-old boy who died in what officials call a vicious dog attack is being remembered for his smart and adventurous personality.
The attack happened in Volusia County, Florida, on Monday evening.
The boy was identified as Michael Millett.
“Our family is devastated with the loss of Michael,” a GoFundMe page reads. “He was incredibly smart, funny, caring, loving, and so adventurous. Michael’s contagious laugh and light will be missed tremendously.”
Michael’s sister Skylar Pittman told WFTV that he “was just the best little kid ever. My heart is just broken into a million pieces.”
In a news conference, Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood said that Michael was riding his bike in a neighborhood with a friend when they came across two dogs roaming loose near the neighborhood’s entrance.
Officials said Michael stopped to pet the dogs. The encounter started off friendly, but then the dogs quickly turned vicious and brutally attacked him.
“It goes from a petting and a very friendly encounter to the dogs becoming very, very, very vicious, and very violent,” Chitwood said.
Neighbors called 911, and Michael’s mother also arrived and shielded her son with her own body. The sheriff said shockingly, the dogs stopped attacking and did not touch the mother.
Nearby residents administered CPR to Michael, but they were unable to save him, the sheriff’s office said.
Chitwood said that Michael was “maliciously mauled, brutally mauled and killed at the scene.”
“The injuries that Michael sustained … were just horrific. They were just horrific, what happened to that little boy,” Chitwood said.
Audio of a 911 call from a neighbor said that Michael was not moving and not breathing.
In a news conference, the sheriff said investigators were told by neighbors that the two dogs are a frequent problem and are often loose in the neighborhood. Chitwood also said the dogs previously killed pet chickens and were reportedly responsible for another “incident” in a nearby county, which officials are investigating.
Angela Miedema, director of Volusia County Animal Services, said the dogs’ property is not fully fenced, and that a gate was left open.
The property is roughly a half mile from where Michael was attacked.
“That gate was open upon their [deputies’] arrival, so they entered the property. The property is not fully fenced. They [the dogs] had the ability to get out of that property,” Miedema said.
Chitwood said, however, that there were no previous calls or reports about the dogs in Volusia County.
“Clearly, this didn’t just happen in a vacuum. These dogs have been terrorizing this neighborhood for a while, and nobody decided to call us,” Chitwood said.
Body camera video from deputies shows the dogs back on their property after the attack. Miedema said one was a gray pit bull mix that appeared “social,” wagging its tail and approaching deputies with ease. She said that the dog was captured very quickly.
The other dog is a black and white Catahoula mix that Miedema said was harder to capture and was much more aggressive toward officers.
Both dogs, however, were responsible for killing Michael, officials said.
It’s unclear if one of the dogs attacked first and the other followed, but a bite wound expert has been called in to help make that determination.
As of Tuesday’s press conference, Miedema said that the dogs’ owner has not given permission to euthanize the dogs. The animals are currently in quarantine as the sheriff’s office starts the process of taking the owner to court and getting charges filed.
“You have a lot of responsibility as a dog owner to keep your animal confined to your property and ensure the public’s safety, as well as ensure things like socialization and training to make sure that this animal is not a threat to anybody else,” Miedema said.
Chitwood said that the owner was not home at the time of the attack. He added that she has a “significant” criminal history, of which “a lot of it has to do with drugs” as well as battery and assault charges.
“We’re going to do everything humanly possible to hold the owner of these dogs responsible, and we’re going to do everything possible to make sure these animals are destroyed,” Chitwood said.
He added, “The ultimate goal for me, for the sheriff’s office and for animal control, is to see that Michael gets justice.”
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