7-Year-Old Massachusetts Boy Killed By Pit Bulls

A seven-year-old boy was attacked killed by a pair of pit bulls Saturday night in Lowell, Massachusetts.

A statement from Middlesex District Attorney's Office details how it appears that he boy entered a fenced enclosure that housed the two pit bulls. The dogs attacked the boy around 6 p.m. and several people made frantic calls to 911.

By the time authorities had arrived, the boy was dead.

“I heard someone yelling, ‘It’s my baby! It’s my baby!’ and I come to find out that it was my daughter’s friend’s son,” said neighbor Annmarie Dizazzo to WFXT, a Dedham, Massachusetts, Fox News affiliate.

One of the dogs charged police when they arrived. An officer shot the dog who then ran away. It was later found and euthanized. The other dog is in the custody of the city.

Police are not releasing the name of the boy killed because of his age. He was reportedly playing with his brother before the attack. Police are investigating how the mauling happened and whether the boy entered the fence of his own volition.

“It was unreal ... unreal,” a neighbor who asked only to be identified as Betsy told the Lowell Sun. “The older boy, on the sidewalk, he said 'I couldn't save my brother,' " she said. “I guess that he wasn't watching him or whatever and the kid got up there and got over there where the fence [is] and the boy tried to help him, but you know... I don't know.”

The Lowell City Council passed an ordinance in 2011 that limited the number of pit bulls a resident can own to two. The dogs must also be spayed or neutered.

No charges have been filed yet in the case.

Pit bulls are often seen as a dangerous or controversial dog breed because of their association with violence. Pit bulls were responsible for 232 deaths between 2005 and 2015 — around 64 percent of all dog-related killings, according to non-profit DogsBite. Other organizations contend that while historically pit bulls were bred for fighting, they are not by their nature dangerous and are often still trained in a way that makes them dangerous.