The Virginian-Pilot
                             THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Friday, October 25, 1996              TAG: 9610250524
SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   76 lines

DOG MAULS BEACH 4-YEAR-OLD ROTTWEILER SMASHES THROUGH FENCE AND ATTACKS PLAYING BOY

Monica Williams caught just three chilling phrases on the telephone.

``All I heard was `the baby' and `the dog' and `I'm sorry,' '' Williams said Thursday, a day after she raced to the emergency room ahead of the ambulance carrying her 4-year-old son.

Jakeem Williams was riding a tricycle in a relative's backyard Wednesday afternoon when a Rottweiler in a neighboring yard smashed through a wooden stockade fence to attack him. For no apparent reason, the powerful dog grabbed the boy by the legs and began shaking him in its jaws.

The dog had shaken off Jakeem's boots and stripped away his jeans when Cindy Johnson, the boy's cousin, fired a handgun three times at the dog, hitting it at least once.

``That dog had gone past food hungry,'' Williams said. ``He was blood hungry.''

On Thursday afternoon, Jakeem was awaiting surgery at Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters. The dog and its male companion were being held at the city pound, and their owner was charged with three offenses.

The dogs' owner, identified by police as Drusilla Brown, 40, was charged with having a nuisance animal and failing to get dog licenses or rabies vaccinations for her pets.

Jakeem and his sister were visiting Johnson and her son at their home on Tuition Drive in Campus East. Johnson said she had always felt nervous about the dogs next door. Once, her husband tried to talk to the animals' owner, who she said lets the dogs run loose sometimes. But the owner refused to talk, she said.

And now, just a few feet in front of her, one of the dogs was attacking Jakeem.

Johnson said this is what happened:

Jakeem's 2-year-old sister started screaming when the female Rottweiler smashed through the wooden privacy fence separating the two neighbors on Tuition Drive. Johnson ran to the patio door and saw the dog yank Jakeem from the tricycle.

Johnson ran outside and scooped up her 2-year-old son and Jakeem's sister and dashed back to the patio door. The dog let Jakeem go and began charging after the fleeing woman.

``I slammed the glass door shut just as the dog's face smashed into it,'' Johnson said.

The frenzied dog returned to Jakeem. Johnson grabbed the handgun she and her husband keep in the house. She shot three times.

The first shot missed, but one of the next two shots struck the dog in the paw. The dog let Jakeem go and hobbled back through the hole in the fence.

``I yelled to Jakeem that I would make a deal with him: I wanted to meet him halfway,'' Johnson said.

With the dog still watching and Johnson still clutching the gun, she went into the yard. Jakeem struggled to her. She grabbed him and ran inside.

Some of the bites on Jakeem's lower legs went into bone. But the dog's gnashing teeth missed main arteries and veins.

On Thursday, Jakeem lay quietly in the hospital bed swaddled in yellow hospital pajamas mottled with pictures of grinning cats. He was upset only because he has to wear a Pamper, his mother said. After all, he told her, he's a big boy and diapers are for little boys.

Today, he is scheduled for the first of several surgeries.

The dogs will stay in the city pound at least until the owner's Dec. 10 court date, police spokesman Mike Carey said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MIKE HEFFNER/The Virginian-Pilot

Jakeem Williams is comforted in the hospital by his mother, Monica

Williams, a day after he was attacked by a dog.

Photo

MIKE HEFFNER/The Virginian-Pilot

Jakeem Williams was attacked by a dog while visiting his mother's

cousin in Virginia Beach Wednesday. His mother, Monica Williams,

tends to Jakeem as her cousin, Cindy Johnson, looks on.

KEYWORDS: DOGS INJURIES ASSAULT by CNB