JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – An ordinary afternoon of playing outside turned into a Jacksonville parent’s worst nightmare when her 11-year-old daughter was mauled by a pit bull at a friend’s home, her family said.
Surveillance video captured the screams and panic as the dog grabbed Jakya Dawkins, who was taken to a hospital and is recovering, relatives said.
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“Me and him were in the room and I heard her screaming at first,” her mother said. “And her screams just started being different so I looked out the window and he had her by the back of her pants and was just dragging her across the yard.”
In a panic, Dawkins’ mom and stepdad ran outside to get the dog off of her.
“When I jumped the fence, I just went to swinging and just making all kind of loud noises, just anything to kind of get the attention off of her, and onto me,” her stepdad said.
Dawkins said she was afraid and the attack happened out of nowhere.
“He just slipped out the doorway and then just charged at me,” she said.
The girl is recovering from the injuries suffered in the attack.
“Her wrist is very bad,” her mother said. “It was 11 centimeters from her artery and her wrist and her chest, her side, and her backside has been bad.”
Dawkins said she won’t go outside until the dog, Lucky, is gone.
News4JAX was at the home when Animal Care and Protective Services arrived to check on the dog involved in the attack, but they didn’t take the dog. ACPS explained why.
“This is a dog that put somebody on their own property and it’s an unfortunate situation but after speaking to the owners, they have the dog contained they will be holding for the quarantine period and we visually put eyes on the dog today,” Michael Bricker, ACPS division chief said.
The dog’s owner, Chelsea Rodriguez, said she is apologetic.
“I did not mean for my dog to go above and beyond,” she said. “He was just protecting his home. What he thought he was protecting his home.”
Dawkins’ stepfather said it’s important always to pay attention to your children and their surroundings.
“Because a situation like this, it can happen in the split of second,” he said. “Nobody wants to see their child go through that.”
Dawkins’ family said their focus now is helping her recover physically and emotionally from the attack.
ACPS said the dog remains under a mandatory quarantine while the agency continues its operation.