A 9-year-old girl has died after she was attacked by a pet pitbull . According to Fox 5 News , the incident happened in the backyard of a home located on Long Island, Nassau County, New York. Initial reports say that the girl was visiting the home located on Holland Avenue in Elmont at around 10:30 a.m. local time on Sunday when the pitbull attacked her. According to an NBC NewYork report, the girl was playing with two of her friends — both girls — when the attack took place. An adult woman who was inside the home when the pitbull attacked also tried to pull the dog off the girl but was unable to do so because of the viciousness of the attack. According to Detective Michael Bitsko of the Nassau County Police Department, a call was made to 911 shortly after the attack following which police officers quickly reached the scene.
Meanwhile, the actual circumstances in which the fatal pitbull attack took place is still being investigated, a report added.
Minutes after the attack, police officers responded to the emergency call and entered the backyard where the injured girl laid. The pitbull charged at a police officer who opened a door towards the yard following which he opened fired at the dog, killing it. The injured girl, whose name has not been revealed, was then taken to a the local Franklin General Hospital in Valley Stream, where she died of her injuries a few hours later. After the news of the attack spread, people turned to social media networks to express their anguish and sadness.
#NYC l am sad and sorry to say, they were unable to save the 9-year-old girl, in the Elmont pit bull attack, condolences to the family.
— FNN Fast New News (@tachyonics) November 8, 2015
Killed on a play date in her friend’s backyard. 9-yr-old Long Island girl dies after vicious pit bull attack https://t.co/27PPnLIOml
— princess the bulldog (@white_feminist) November 8, 2015
@DavidFox46 Who and where… next? Who is protecting the children? Where is God? https://t.co/K6zdXcIB0A
— What-in-the-world (@End_Silence_Now) November 8, 2015
Meanwhile, the police officers have arrested the owner of the dog, identified as 29-year-old Carlyle Arnold. Arnold was arrested at the scene for an unrelated charge of violating an order of protection, reports say. The dog that was involved in the attack did not have any previous history of violent behavior and it remains unclear at this stage what provoked the dog to launch the attack. Officers are also questioning the owner of the pitbull in order to arrive at some sort of conclusion.
The news of this latest pitbull attack comes barely a month after the Inquisitr reported of another vicious attack on October 5 . Back then, two cousins, who were out jogging on a rural country road in Carroll County, Indiana, were attacked by a pack of four pit bulls without any provocation. The young girls later identified as Isabella George, 19, and Rebkah Forgey, 20, tried escaping by running towards their home located across a field. However, the dogs managed to outrun them and launched a vicious attack. Even the dogs’ owner wasn’t able to stop the dogs and was bitten by the animals himself. The attack finally stopped when a passing motorist drove his car into the field and scared the dogs away.
We will update this story once more information regarding the latest pitbull attack is released.
Our condolences goes out to the family of the victim of this attack.
[Photo by David Paul Morris/Getty Images]