MANCHESTER — Three people, including a child, were taken to a Lewiston hospital Wednesday after a pit bull attacked them at their Prescott Road home.
The dog was shot fatally by the owner’s 12-year-old son as it ravaged the boy’s grandmother.
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Another son of dog owner Jeremiah Bailie, Ross Allen Bailie II, 11, was taken to Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston with bites to the armpit, Kennebec County Sheriff Randall Liberty said.
The boys’ grandmother, Lena Walker, 68, was in stable condition at CMMC, where she was treated for leg injuries, including a right calf that “was partially torn off,” Liberty said.
A third person, Anthony Manganella, 28, a friend of Jeremiah Bailie’s, who also lived at the home, suffered arm injuries, including a broken wrist, and was in stable condition at CMMC.
“Had the wounds been any closer to any vital areas, a death may have resulted,” Liberty said.
The dog, estimated by owner Bailie to weigh at least 120 pounds, initially attacked and killed a small Chihuahua that also lived in the house.
The attack occurred around 10 a.m. outside the home at 826 Prescott Road.
The male pit bull attacked the Chihuahua, prompting Manganella to intervene in an attempt to save the small dog, said Kennebec County Sheriff’s Deputy Jesse Duda.
The pit bull then turned on Manganella, which prompted Bailie’s 11-year-old son to intervene.
The boys’ grandmother, Walker, wrestled the dog away from the boy, and it in turn attacked her.
The 12-year-old shot the dog with a 20-gauge shotgun that he got from the house during the attack.
The pit bull ran into the house after it was shot and later died, Liberty said.
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services will analyze the dog to try to determine what caused the attack, Liberty said.
Duda said there were no charges as of Wednesday afternoon, but the incident remained under investigation.
“This attack was one of the worst that we have covered in many years,” Liberty said. “The pit bull could have easily killed the grandmother had it not been for the quick thinking of the young male who dispatched the animal.”
Jeremiah Bailie said the pit bull, Excalibur, had been with his family for seven years.
“He was like family,” said Bailie, 30. “He slept in the bed with us. He’d wake up in the middle of the night to make you lift up the blankets so he could climb in.”
But Bailie knew Excalibur, which he described as an American pit bull, was not trustworthy. Bailie said he had instructed his family to leave the dog in his bedroom with the air conditioning going and food and water when he was not at home.
“He respects me because I’ve been the owner for seven years,” Bailie said of the dog.
But Excalibur had been out of the bedroom when Bailie arrived home from work the last three days.
“They should have respected what I asked them to do,” Bailie said.
Bailie said the pit bull was not typically aggressive toward people. He believes the dog attacked Manganella only because he tried to help the Chihuahua.
“They jumped into the fight,” Bailie said.
Bailie said he had trained his son to shoot the dog if it ever attacked someone.
“I didn’t want it to end up being something like this,” he said.
Bailie, a builder, said he was halfway to a job site in Belfast when he received a frantic phone call from his older boy.
“My son called me and told me, ‘I had to shoot the dog,’ ” Bailie recalled. “I told him, ‘It’s OK. You did the right thing.'”
Bailie said he could hear people crying in the background. He was unable to get more information amid the confusion.
“I was like, holy crap, I just have to get there to make sure everyone’s OK,” Bailie said.
Bailie said Excalibur weighed 120 pounds the last time he visited the veterinarian; but after helping sheriff’s deputies carry his dead dog to a waiting truck on Wednesday, Bailie believes the dog was much heavier.
“When we picked him up, it was like carrying an actual person,” Bailie said.
Bailie said he was glad his family and his friend were going to recover, but he said he will miss the dog.
“It’s sad,” he said. “When you choose a breed, you have to accept the responsibility that goes with it.”
Craig Crosby — 621-5642
ccrosby@centralmaine.com
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