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Brooklyn(Md) infant is killed in home by family pit bull
Baltimore Sun ^ | August 9, 2003 | Jessica Valdez and Alec MacGillis

Posted on 08/09/2003 1:08:38 PM PDT by Brooklyn_Park_MD

Brooklyn infant is killed in home by family pit bull Parents had stepped out on porch; police shoot dog -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Jessica Valdez and Alec MacGillis Sun Staff Originally published August 9, 2003

A 2-week-old Brooklyn infant was killed yesterday by his family's pit bull after the baby's parents stepped outside and left him alone in their house with the dog, police said.

Responding to the incident at 3:15 p.m. in the 4200 block of Audrey Ave., police found the dog loose in the street and shot it, firing multiple times to make sure it was dead, witnesses said.

The child's death and the shooting shocked a neighborhood where residents said they had not had any problems with the dog.

Neighbors identified the baby as Terry Allen Jr. He was lying in a swing on the second floor of his family's rowhouse when he was killed, neighbors said.

Tonya Everhart, a friend and co-worker of the baby's mother, Stacie Morgridge, said the baby's parents left the infant alone briefly while they stepped outside to smoke cigarettes.

"They don't smoke around the baby," Everhart said.

When Morgridge and her 29-year-old boyfriend, Terry Allen - the father of the child - went back inside, they found the swing knocked over and the baby lying on the floor looking blue and limp but not mauled, said Everhart, who works with Morgridge at the nearby Charlie Ward convenience store.

The baby, who went by the nickname "T.J.," was rushed to Harbor Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Police spokeswoman Nicole Monroe confirmed that the parents were on their front porch at the time of the attack but said police aren't sure what they were doing there.

Monroe said that no criminal charges have been brought against either parent but that that has not been ruled out.

"At this point, no one has been charged. The investigation is ongoing," Monroe said. "Of course we're not ruling anything out. The detectives are being open-minded."

The dog bit the baby "multiple times," Monroe said.

Neighbors who spoke with the parents speculated last night that the baby might have died because of being knocked out of the swing.

"The dog didn't intentionally hurt the child," said Michele Schmidt, who lives across the street.

After calling 911, Everhart said, the baby's parents chained the dog in the front yard, but she said the dog broke loose and jumped the fence.

When police arrived, Monroe said, the dog was roaming the street. Police shot it because they were worried it might jump into nearby yards where residents had gathered to watch.

"The dog was shot and killed because he posed a threat to everyone in the neighborhood," she said. "Children were out, and we didn't want it to get into yards where people were standing."

In the shooting, some bullet fragments smashed through a nearby car window. The breaking glass injured one of the car's occupants, who was treated at the scene.

Some neighbors watching the shooting questioned whether police overreacted by shooting the dog multiple times, saying one shot would have sufficed.

"It took five police and 15 to 20 [shots] to kill this dog," said John Pegram, who was moving furniture into his nearby business at the time of the shooting.

"They're here to protect and serve, and then they endanger people's lives. It doesn't take five police to kill a dog."

Added Cindy Shimel, a 10-year-old who lives across the street, "It was down on the ground, and they still kept on shooting for no reason."

Neighbors said the dog, who they thought went by the name "Jigga," lived inside the house and had never shown signs of viciousness. They said they often saw Morgridge, who was well known in the neighborhood, walk the dog around the block.

"He was the nicest dog in the neighborhood," said Cindy Shimel.

Neighbors estimated the dog's age to be about 7. Several said Morgridge had reported that the dog had appeared out of sorts since the baby was born.

Three hours after the shooting, the dog's carcass still lay in the middle of the street.

The child's death occurs roughly two years after the City Council narrowly defeated a bill to ban the city's estimated 6,000 pit bulls, a proposal prompted by a string of non-fatal dog attacks on children. City health officials said then that the Bureau of Animal Control lacked the resources to enforce a ban.

"We oppose this," Baltimore Health Commissioner Peter L. Beilenson said at the time. "We don't have the staff. If we pick up an animal, proving it is a pit bull is difficult."

Last year, the council passed a less stringent law to rein in violent dogs, a requirement that all cat and dog owners purchase a license for their pets and tag them with a tiny microchip implant that would make it easier for animal control officers to identify and seize violent dogs.

Anthony Bradford, director of the Bureau of Animal Control, said yesterday that he was unsure how many dogs have been licensed or seized under the new law.

About 1,000 dog bites are reported to the city Health Department each year, about 30 percent of them by pit bulls. But they are rarely fatal.

In 1994, a baby was mauled to death in an East Baltimore apartment when its mother visited a friend who was keeping her incarcerated boyfriend's pit bull. In 1985, a 57-year-old Edgemere woman was killed by her pit bull terriers.

Nationally, about 10 people a year are killed by dogs, most of them either by pit bulls or Rottweilers, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Several jurisdictions have passed or considered bans on pit bulls.

At the same time, several cities and counties that have passed bans have encountered difficulties. In 2000, Cincinnati repealed a 13-year ban on pit bulls because the city was spending $200,000 a year to seize and euthanize less than 20 percent of the city's pit bulls, most of which had never bitten anyone.

Sun researcher Elizabeth Lukes contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2003, The Baltimore Sun | Get home delivery

(Excerpt) Read more at sunspot.net ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: baltimoran; baltimore; idiotparents; jawson4legs; killerdogs; landshark; pitbulldog; socialistposter; voteforarnold
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This news upset me, people in Brooklyn(Md) feel sorry for dog. I don't feel sorry for anyone who have pit bull. I think all Pit Bull should be banned from USA, Europe bans Pit Bull.
1 posted on 08/09/2003 1:08:39 PM PDT by Brooklyn_Park_MD
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To: Brooklyn_Park_MD
Pit Bulls are not pets.
2 posted on 08/09/2003 1:11:05 PM PDT by Consort
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To: Brooklyn_Park_MD
Pit bulls love kids.
3 posted on 08/09/2003 1:11:44 PM PDT by Crawdad (I cried because I had no shoes, until I met a man who had no class.)
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To: Brooklyn_Park_MD
I don't believe a word of it. Rewrite it with the baby died at the hands of the parents and to cover it up they held the dog's mouth on the baby to provide marks and then I'll be a believer.
4 posted on 08/09/2003 1:16:35 PM PDT by mtbopfuyn
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To: mtbopfuyn
Rewrite it with the baby died at the hands of the parents and to cover it up they held the dog's mouth on the baby to provide marks and then I'll be a believer.

Yep. Sounds like white trash to me.

the baby's parents left the infant alone briefly while they stepped outside to smoke cigarettes.

I'd wager the dog didn't have damn thing to do with it.

5 posted on 08/09/2003 1:21:24 PM PDT by sinkspur (Get a dog. He'll change your life!)
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To: Brooklyn_Park_MD
The pit bull and a few other breeds might be overbred but the real culprits are the idiots who encourage ferocity in the breeds by training or abuse. All the gansta and tough guys who need to 'represent' are the root cause. But this just might be the best thing after all. No one would want this child suffering the ravages of second hand smoke! (Don't flame me, this is what caused this child to be unprotected- the nazism of thetruth.org.) And how about the Pet Psychic:""The dog didn't intentionally hurt the child," said Michele Schmidt, who lives across the street." Ms. Schmidt could see right into the heart of the late Jigga. And what about a platoon of cops taking 15-20 shots at a dog? Holy Mary, Mother of God, is this the best we can do for law enforcement?
6 posted on 08/09/2003 1:21:49 PM PDT by thegreatbeast (Quid lucrum istic mihi est?)
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To: Consort
Pit Bulls are not pets.

Yes, they are. Negligence is the fault here. I wouldn't leave a newborn alone with a German Shepherd let alone a Pit, so what were these parents thinking?

7 posted on 08/09/2003 1:23:30 PM PDT by rdb3 (I'm not a complete idiot. Several parts are missing.)
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To: Brooklyn_Park_MD
Read this story again...what the hell is it talking about?

This is one of the worst stories I've ever read.

baby lying on the floor looking blue and limp but not mauled,

The dog bit the baby "multiple times," Monroe said.

WTF?....this is trash reporting.

FMCDH

8 posted on 08/09/2003 1:23:49 PM PDT by nothingnew (I've changed my tagline and will tell no one what it is until I'm on the Jay Leno show!)
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To: thegreatbeast
""They don't smoke around the baby," Everhart said."

Second hand smoke is too damn dangerous.

9 posted on 08/09/2003 1:24:49 PM PDT by billhilly (No monument has been erected to a cynic)
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To: Brooklyn_Park_MD
There are some breeds that have a vicious nature. They don't belong loose, or unsupervised around kids. That's the dog owners responsibility. All these dogs don't behave this way. They didn't have the dog trained with the right respect and restraints. They wanted adog with a vicious capacity and the got one.

"parents chained the dog in the front yard, but she said the dog broke loose and jumped the fence. It took five police and 15 to 20 [shots] to kill this dog,"

Bwahahaha...! It's a monster!

"Europe bans Pit Bull."

Europe bans everything.

10 posted on 08/09/2003 1:25:15 PM PDT by spunkets
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To: Brooklyn_Park_MD
"They don't smoke around the baby," Everhart said

And smoking seperately would be too much to ask, I suppose.

11 posted on 08/09/2003 1:25:49 PM PDT by riri
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Comment #12 Removed by Moderator

To: spunkets
I tend to agree with you. When you ban a dog breed, you just send the idiots out looking for the next aggressive type breed to ruin.

No more pits? Better get a Thai ridgeback! No T.R's? Maybe a Rhodesian Ridgeback? On and On and On.If you banned every last aggressive breed, the true mullet would just find agressive mixed breeds and go from there. Some people just can't resist large surly dogs. Unfortunately, they ruin it for everyone else.

Good training, firm leadership, and a realistic idea about where you can take the dog are the keys to avoiding maulings. Nothing else will work. That said, I do wish breeders would be a little more choosy about who they sell to.
13 posted on 08/09/2003 1:36:21 PM PDT by Threepwood
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To: thegreatbeast
I agree with everything you stated. Well thought out.
14 posted on 08/09/2003 1:40:19 PM PDT by the Deejay
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To: rdb3
Yes, they are.

Dead wrong.

15 posted on 08/09/2003 1:52:58 PM PDT by Consort
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To: Brooklyn_Park_MD
Pitbulls are peaceful and loving dogs, just as Islam is a peaceful and loving religion.
16 posted on 08/09/2003 1:53:01 PM PDT by ambrose
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To: Threepwood
I thought I'd read that the reason Pit Bulls and Rottweilers hurt people disproportionately is because they've been bred over the years to have disproportinate jaw strength. If that's the case, then it would be the dogs as well as the owners who are dangerous.

On the other hand, the article I'm remembering also referred to a baby killed by a Pekinese, so go figure.
17 posted on 08/09/2003 1:53:08 PM PDT by libravoter (Live from the People's Republic of Cambridge)
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To: Consort
Dead wrong.

Alive right. I speak from years of experience.

18 posted on 08/09/2003 1:56:32 PM PDT by rdb3 (I'm not a complete idiot. Several parts are missing.)
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To: rdb3
I speak from years of experience.

Borrowed time.

19 posted on 08/09/2003 1:57:19 PM PDT by Consort
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To: libravoter
I understand that those little dogs from the Taco Bell commericals are hard little biters too. Lots of kids get bit by them. Who'de have thunk it?
20 posted on 08/09/2003 1:58:14 PM PDT by Threepwood
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