Behind the door of apartment 2B, came the screams for help from a 10-year-old boy, that's when neighbor Robert Michael Ricks took action.
"I'm kicking now, I kicked the door open," Ricks said.
Inside, Robert Michael could not believe the horror of the moment. Two large dogs were attacking the boy.
"It was shocking to see," Ricks said," Basically it was a massacre of one child," Ricks said.
Robert Michael fought them off with a chair while the boy managed to escape, but was tripped by one dog.
"A dog kind of clipped him, the back part of him, and he fell. He lands down here," Ricks said.
Robert Michael was still fighting with the dogs on the upper landing.
"You're up here, the boy is down there, and the dogs are still trying to attack him?" Eyewitness News reporter Tim Fleischer asked.
"I couldn't believe none of it actually," Ricks said.
Police officers arrived and once the boy was pulled to safety, they opened fire killing one of the dogs and wounding the other.
"You just leavy toward trying to help the child. That's all you can do," Ricks said.
"But if you had not been there, he might not be with us now?" Fleischer asked.
"Yeah, that's what a lot of people are telling me," Ricks said.
The boy is in critical condition. Robert Michael Ricks is just thankful he's alive.
The victim's father was arrested and charged with second degree endangering the welfare of a child.
41-year-old Enrique Carrillo lives at the Hawkins Court apartment where the incident happened and owns the pit bulls. He is currently in the city's jail.
He has visitation rights of the two children. A family member dropped them off at the apartment.
Carrillo went somewhere with the other son and left the victim home alone with the dogs when they attacked the boy.
The kids do not live in the apartment with him.
His court appearance has not been scheduled yet.
