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"Calumet Park Boy Back Home After Dog Attack," The Chicago Tribune, June 13, 2002, Section 2, 2.
By WILL POTTER
Thanks to neighbors who saved him from two 100-pound Rottweilers that attacked him in his back yard, 5-year-old Rijon Williams returned to his Calumet Park home Wednesday with only a few bandages to show for the scare.
Rijon was playing in the back yard with Antoine Saddler, 12, at about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday when two of the neighbor's Rottweilers began to paw and lunge at the rickety wooden fence separating the two back yards. Antoine told his friends to get inside and ran into the house for help.
Rijon went to the side of the house to tell the dogs' owner, but near the front yard, he fell and the dogs attacked.
"At first it looked like they were playing with him," Antoine said. "But when Rijon tried to get up off the ground, they pushed him down and went at him." The dogs dragged the 38-pound boy approximately 10 feet in the grass.
Antoine's mother, Jackie Moffett, ran to help Rijon. She tried beating the dogs to force them to release the child, but they would not. Her friend, Joseph Gardner, then began punching and kicking the dogs, and suffered minor wounds on his arm.
"When they finally let go, Joe swooshed Rijon up," she said. "I thought he was dead because of the way he was hanging from his arms. The dogs just kept pacing the yard, looking at us."
Rijon was treated at Christ Hospital and Medical Center in Oak Lawn for minor wounds, including bite wounds on his head, face and arms, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Calumet Park police cited the owner of the dogs, Uyless P. Terrell, 61, with keeping vicious dogs and allowing dogs to run loose. The dogs were taken to a veterinarian to check for rabies, police said.
Neighborhood children play in the yard regularly, Moffett said. Their play area is visible from the adjoining yard through gaps in the fence. There had been no previous incidents with the dogs, Moffett said, but concerns had been raised several times with the owner.
Terrell refused to comment.
Neighbors said that five Rottweilers were taken away by authorities Wednesday. One Rottweiler and two German shepherds remain at the Terrell home, neighbors said.
Rolan Tripp, a veterinarian who teaches courses on animal behavior, said incidents like this are preventable. The situation was probably intensified by the children running, which activates a hunting instinct in the dogs, he said.
