A kindergartner at home on a day off from school on Wednesday was mauled to death by two pit bulls who had prompted calls to police before, authorities said.
Makayla Woodard, a five-year-old who attended Waxhaw Elementary School, died on the way to the hospital of injuries police officers described as "gruesome".
Her grandmother, 67-year-old Nancy Presson, tried to save Makayla, but the dogs turned on her in an attack that rattled the neighbourhood and will likely bring charges against the dogs' owner. Presson had bites and scratches on her shoulder and arm, but was expected to survive.
A police officer who responded and arrived during the attack, pulled the dogs off Makayla and her grandmother and began treating the girl's wounds. The officer then shot one of the dogs as it charged towards the girl again. The second dog got away and was loose for two hours before police were able to shoot and kill it too.
It was the second high-profile pit bull attack in the Charlotte area in less than a month. On December 22, a six-year-old boy was attacked by his cousin's pit bull in Mint Hill. The boy survived but was seriously injured. His grandmother, who rushed to help the boy, was also injured.
The owner of the pit bulls involved in Monday's attack, who lives next door to Presson, has not been charged with a crime, though Waxhaw Police Chief Michael Eiss said charges are likely later this week. He would not release the owner's name because no charges had been filed.
Eiss said the attack happened around 11am EST (about 5am AEDT Thursday) in the dog owner's backyard. No one answered the door at the home where the pit bulls lived on Wednesday afternoon. A woman who answered the phone at the house said the family had no comment.
Makayla was at home because the Union County Schools were closed due to icy roads.
Her cousin, Amy Plyler, told Charlotte Observer news partner WCNC-TV that the girl was on her way to play with her own dogs in the yard when she was attacked.
"She was crossing the yard to get in the pen ... and the dog got her," Plyler said.
"She was a really good kid. She was just a miracle," Plyler said in tears. "She was so smart, and she was loved very much."
Eiss said he wasn't sure whether the dogs - both full-sized pit bulls - were loose or had broken free of their chains.
Neighbours said the dogs had gotten away at least once before. Eiss said his officers had received calls about the dogs roaming the neighbourhood and warned their owner just before Christmas to contain them.
"We told him to keep them locked up," Eiss said. "Apparently he did not."
A neighbour who declined to give her name said she had seen the dogs loose in the neighbourhood before and worried about the safety of her own children. One time, she said, the pit bulls stopped in front of her yard and growled.
Pit bull advocates said the breed is no more vicious than any other. Owner behaviour is more often at fault for a vicious dog, says Sara Enos, founder of the Charlotte-based American Pit Bull Foundation.
"It's not the dog. It really is the owner - how responsible they are with their pet," Enos said.
She said Wednesday's attack likely resulted from human irresponsibility.
"If this dog has an issue of getting out to begin with, that's a huge problem."
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