An Ada County police dog escaped from his handler's home in central Meridian Wednesday and mauled a boy before a neighbor intervened, pulling the dog off the boy.
Dave Warren said he was doing yard work when he heard a "blood-curdling scream." He ran around the corner to see what was happening, thinking someone had been hit by a car. Instead he found a Belgian Malinois attacking a boy near the corner of Northwest 13th Street and Radial Court, he said. He grabbed the dog by the neck, pulled it off the boy and held it down while yelling at a neighbor to call police.
"It happened so fast, you just react," Warren said.
Warren said the boy, who appeared to be bitten on the shoulder and neck, was shaken but alert after the attack and did not appear to be seriously injured.
Meridian police investigated investigated the attack, but refused to release any information Wednesday, saying they would issue a news release today. But Sgt. John Tucker of the Ada County Sheriff's Office confirmed the animal was a police dog that lived with his human partner in the Meridian neighborhood and got away from his handler's house. Tucker did not identify the deputy who works with the dog and gave additional information about the attack or how the sheriff's office will respond to it.
The victim, who told Warren he was in the eighth grade, was bike-riding with his little brother when the dog apparently knocked the boy off his bike and began biting him, Warren said. Warren started yelling at the dog while he ran toward the boy, but the dog refused to let go, he said. There was "a lot of blood," he said.
"I think the dog was trying to kill him. It was scary," he said.
Paramedics and Meridian police officers came to the scene and treated the boy, then released him to his mother, Warren said.
Warren was bitten twice while subduing the dog but he downplayed his injury.
"I got an owie on my hand, but I'll live," he said, laughing.
The dog was taken away by animal control officers. Meridian Animal Control Officer Brenda Stein-ebach said that she didn't have specific information about this case, but as a rule, if dogs have had their rabies shots, they are given back to their owners, even if they have attacked someone.
Belgian Malinois are similar in appearance to German shepherds and are commonly used by law enforcement.
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