3 children, 1 adult injured in New Jersey dog attack

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Thursday, February 28, 2019
3 children, 1 adult injured in New Jersey dog attack
Toni Yates reports on the dog attack in Newark, NJ.

NEWARK, New Jersey (WABC) -- Three children and one adult were injured in a dog attack in New Jersey Thursday morning.

Police responded to Eldwood Avenue and Broadway in Newark around 8 a.m. to a report of a German shepherd running loose in a McDonald's parking lot.

The victims all suffered non-life threatening injuries from dog bites. The children, ages 9, 11 and 12, suffered superficial wounds.

The McDonald's is located directly across the street from the Luis Munoz Marin Middle School, and officials said the dog briefly entered the building but did not bite anyone inside.

The dog also entered the Twin City Supermarket, where it was caught on surveillance camera. In the video, the dog did not appear vicious, wagging its tail as it walked through the grocery store.

A district spokesperson confirmed the children were on the way to school at the time.

A worker at Rene's Motor Car Sales told Eyewitness News that the dog belongs to the manager, who was walking it when it broke away.

Al Miller was working on a passing sanitation truck and jumped in to help protect the children, throwing garbage at the dog to distract it.

"Quick as he bite them, he'd look and see somebody else, and he'd bite them, he'd grab them," Al Miller said. "The dog was just going crazy like he had rabies or something...We got back on the truck after seeing everyone was all right, up and walking, we got past Chester Avenue, (the dog) runs past me. Man, where you going? I'm thinking he going back this way, because he ran right here now toward the kids going in the school. All the kids started hollering, but I guess he liked the kids because he started wagging his tail around all the kids."

The owner finally collared the dog after he ran into the school, and he was talking with police and Animal Control officers.

The children were brought to the hospital to be evaluated.

So far, no charges have been filed.

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