ELMWOOD PLACE, Ohio -- A toddler was taken to Cincinnati Children's Hospital Wednesday night after a dog attacked her while she played with friends, according to police.
Keith McAfee said he was helping his cousin with yardwork nearby when he heard the girl screaming.
"The next thing I see is a black pit bull had a little girl on the ground. (It) was basically shaking her around like she was a rag doll," he said.
He said he approached the dog and attempted to scare it away, but it continued to attack the girl. She only escaped, according to McAfee, when her mother stepped in to grab her and run. Multiple witnesses had called police, and the girl was taken to Children's Hospital in an ambulance.
Shortly afterward, the dog's owner appeared. McAfee said the man grabbed the dog, put it in his car and drove away.
"He should have stayed," McAfee said. "He should have stayed and seen how that baby was, but to me he was a coward, ‘cause he left."
Police stayed on the scene, but the driver and the dog had not been found by midnight Wednesday.
The attack brought back memories of a pit bull attack on 6-year-old Zainabou Drame in 2014. She was mauled by two dogs on the sidewalk in front of her Westwood home until police arrived and shot the animals. The dogs bit off Zainabou's tongue, tore her windpipe and disfigured her face.
The courageous little girl went back to school but has a lot of surgeries ahead and an uncertain future.
SEE cruiser cam video of the attack on Zainabou and police shooting the dogs. Video may be disturbing to some viewers.
