MOUNT VERNON – Authorities are investigating a reported dog attack that killed a 1-month-old boy.
An autopsy on is scheduled for today for the infant, who was found, along with his father and two dogs, inside a home on Wooster Road, near Amity, north of Mount Vernon, Wednesday morning, according to Sheriff David Shaffer.
The Columbus Dispatch reports Teddy Hagans called 911 around 6:00 a.m. Wednesday to report that his dog had mauled the infant inside his bassinet.
Shaffer says initial responding officers discovered Hagans, 25, the infant and two dogs at the home and the newspaper reports that medical crews pronounced the infant dead at the scene.
The Knox County dog warden removed two pit bulls from the home, Shaffer said.
As part of the investigation, Shaffer says the two dogs, described by animal control officers as pit bulls or a pit bull mix, were “euthanized for examination.”
The boy’s mother, a 23-year-old nurse’s aide, wasn’t at home when the reported attack occurred, the Dispatch reported.
Shaffer declined to release details about the death or the investigation, which also involves the county coroner’s office and the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
Shaffer says grief counseling is being provided to family members and first responders and dispatchers will be involved in a critical incident debriefing.