Boy Bitten on Face by Pit Bull Escaped Attack by Hitting Dog With Bookbag

The 10-year-old victim of a vicious pit bull attack in East Charlotte was back home from the hospital on Saturday after undergoing hours of surgery.

Keyan'te Blackmon was attacked on Wednesday while walking home from school after neighbors invited him to pet their dog at their home on Grandview Ridge, near Albemarle Road, Charlotte, North Carolina, WSOC-TV reported.

When the dog became aggressive, Blackmon had attempted to get away, but the pit bull's chain was too long.

The boy's mother, Jeanetta Blackmon said: "The dog was able to grab him. It was about a four-minute attack, but he fought him off."

The 10-year-old was able to escape by using his backpack as a weapon, but during the course of the attack, his face had been badly bitten.

"That's when it started growling and it grabbed me and pulled me down by my face and like started ripping me...ripping my face off," Keyan'te Blackmon told WBTV. "I was just hoping I wouldn't die and I was going to get home quick. I was about to give up but that's when I hit the dog with my bookbag and kicked to get away."

On October 28, the day following the attack, doctors at Levine Children's Hospital in Charlotte operated on Keyan'te Blackmon's face.

"We're hoping they can just repair his face and he still has all of his senses," Jeanetta Blackmon said.

While Keyan'te Blackmon's parents say that they do not believe all pit bull dogs are dangerous, they want this dog put down and its owners to be held responsible, WBTV reports.

The animal that attacked the 10-year-old is currently under quarantine at Animal Care and Control in Charlotte.

According to DogBite.org, despite making up under 6 percent of the dog population in the United States, between 2005 and 2020 pit bulls were responsible for 67 percent of the 568 fatalities caused by dogs. In this 15 year period, 380 Americans were killed by pit bulls.

In 2020 alone, pit bulls accounted for 72 percent of fatalities caused by dogs, 33 cases out of a total of 46 fatalities.

In a study conducted in March 2020, involving facial injuries caused by dogs, doctors found that the bites inflicted by pit bulls were over 4 times as likely to result in wounds greater than five centimeters compared to other dog breeds.

The study also found that pit bulls were more likely to attack off their own properties. The authors also found that the breed was responsible for more unprovoked attacks than other breeds, with almost 90 percent of the pit bulls attacks they featured being without provocation.

Many cities and states in the U.S. have enacted legislation on the ownership of pit bulls. Certain dog breeds are legislated in 937 cities in the U.S. and pit bulls are banned in cities like Fayette, Alabama; Jacksonville, Arkansas; Denver; Miami, and Larchmont, New York; and in states ranging from Arizona to New York.

Many more U.S. cities require mandatory sterilization of the breed and pit bulls are banned from all U.S. military bases.

The breed is not banned in Charlotte where this attack occurred, though the city investigates reports of dangerous dogs and requires they be contained within a fence, insured, and muzzled when off their properties.

Eddie Blackmon, father of Keyan'te Blackmon, told WSOC of his pride in his son: "He is still up in spirits. He's still wanting to do the same activities as he was doing before this. It hasn't gotten him down, so I am very proud of my son."