Police shoot dog outside Bayonne, NJ, home that attacked little girl

BAYONNE, N.J. (WABC) -- A Bayonne police officer shot a dog that attacked a child Friday morning.

Police responded to the attack around 9 a.m. at a home on West 20th Street.

The brave little 5-year-old girl cuddling next to her family is recovering from a very vicious dog attack.

Despina was heading to kindergarten when was mauled by a neighbors pit bull.

"I was just coming from my house and not even five seconds later, I see the dog coming from the next house, flying to us and tried to eat my daughter, tried to attack my daughter," said Safwat Shnouda, the father of the victim.

Safwat was obviously emotional after his child was so brutally ambushed by the dog.

His daughter's head has a huge gash which needed stitches.

She has deep nasty bite marks on her arms.

He was bitten as he tried to protect his daughter by covering her head.

Safwat feels the dog's owner was reckless.

"Why did he keep the door open, the door was open," Shnouda said.

But the owner of the dog did come out to pull the dog away and was also bitten.

He told Eyewitness News he was sorry for the attack.

Apparently, the dog's real owner just passed away this week and his roommate was taking care of the dog.

When police arrived, the owner was being attacked and asked for help and that's when the officer fired one shot killing the pit bull that had gone after three people.

"There was no barking, no growling, so there was no indication that, no one knew that the dog was going to charge, it just must have charged without any type of barking or heads up that it was agitated," said Janeen Troy, a neighbor.

Anthony Johnson tweeted a photo of the girl as she returned home on Friday afternoon.