Duncan Police are investigating a vicious dog attack that claimed the life of a 3-year-old girl.

It happened Sunday afternoon, in the 600 block of North Avenue F, as the girl was being watched by her grandmother. 

The family in shock is also overcome by grief, as their neighbors hurt for them and for the little girl. 

“Hearing her just scream and cry, like this sound you’ve never heard before. It was just, as a mother, I just wanted to go over there and just hug her,” neighbor Stephanie Koonce said.
 

Koonce says it was after 3 Sunday afternoon, when she saw first responders at her neighbors house across the street and feared the worst for 3-year-old Rylee Marie Dodge.  

Koonce: “I could hear a woman screaming. The next thing I see was the ambulance driver carrying the little girl, and you could still hear the woman over there screaming. The father was going ballistic and kicking the trash cans and trying to help the cops.”

It was during all of that commotion, neighbors say the dog was running around the front of the house. It was in the driveway area, then, it ran to the back of the house. 

Neighbors went on to say that’s when officers followed and soon after there was a gunshot. 

The Duncan Police officer, first on scene, says the dog was shot and killed as it approached officers, back behind the house. 

“I feel like the city needs to beef up because there’s wild dogs running all over the neighborhood,” Neighbor Richard Daniel said. 

Daniel lives a couple of houses down. 

Daniel: “I noticed the dog around the neighborhood for about a week or so and apparently they wound up with it in the yard.”

One neighbor said she noticed the dog, what she thinks was a Pitt-Terier mix, last Monday when it attacked one of the family’s smaller dogs inside the front yard. 

Neighbor: “I told my husband later this last week the dog looked mean and shouldn’t be in the fence with kids.”

Daniel: “This family has never neglected their kids and I’d hate to see anything happen to them. It’s just such a tragedy.”

Koonce: “My heart just really goes out to the family. They are really nice people. They’ve never been any problem. The little girl was so sweet. I’d see her playing in the yard all the time.”

Neighbor: “Its tragic. There’s no words I can say.”

The fatal dog attack remains under investigation by the Duncan Police Department.