A recent court filing disclosed how bystanders in Brooklyn Park armed themselves with anything in their reach to fend off two pit bull mixes as they gravely wounded a toddler and seriously injured the boy’s mother.
Filing: Bystanders tried to fend off pit bull mixes that gravely wounded toddler, injured mother
The Brooklyn Park incident was the second of its kind in a week resulting in a child’s injuries.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
July 26, 2024 at 11:11PM
Natasha Palacios Vega and Charles Allen, parents of 3-year-old Covil Allen, prepared their son to be an organ donor, according to an online fundraising campaign launched to help the family cope with expenses related to the July 19 incident in the 7500 block of N. Brooklyn Park Drive.
A follow-up posting Friday included a photo of the couple next to Covil’s empty hospital bed and the words, “It’s been a hard day as they are beginning the testing so Covil can donate his organs.”
The Champlin family posted no further updates as of late Friday morning, and an HCMC spokeswoman said Covil remains in critical condition.
A search warrant affidavit police filed this week disclosed they collected vaccination and other medical records for the dogs, Blue and Nisi, and bodily and clothing evidence from the home.
According to the filing and earlier police accounts:
Covil and his mother were at a home in the 7500 block of N. Brooklyn Park Drive, where dogs were for sale. One of the dogs attacked Covil in the backyard, and a second one joined in.
“There were adults in the area that started to defend the 3-year-old by using hammers and pick axes to get the dogs off the 3-year-old,” the filing read.
First responders arrived and gave immediate medical attention to the boy, who was taken by ambulance to the hospital with critical injuries.
Police Inspector Elliot Faust specified that the dogs are American bullies, a mix of pit bull and American bulldog. Faust described these two as “the XL variety,” and he added that “this breed is banned in the UK.”
Faust said conversations are underway with city leaders and elected officials about dog attacks.
“It’s a problem in our community,” he said. “We had more potentially dangerous dogs this year than we did last year.”
In the meantime, Faust said, police detectives are working toward presenting a case to prosecutors “in the near future for their review.” He said the same is true for another dog bite incident in the city this week.
On Tuesday, a 7-year-old girl was attacked around 4:40 p.m. in the 7500 block of N. Janelle Avenue, police said. The girl suffered superficial injuries, according to police. Officers killed the dog when it then tried to attack a boy, police said.
Officials said the dog was loose when it attacked the girl.
Star Tribune staff writer Kyeland Jackson contributed to this story.
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