HART COUNTY, Ga. — Neighbors say they are stunned after two pit bulls mauled a toddler to death in Hart County.
The child’s grandmother, Sandra Adams, bonded out of jail late Wednesday afternoon on a $50,000 bond after being charged in the fatal attack that happened Tuesday in Hartwell, near the South Carolina line.
Officers say the dogs attacked the 20-month-old boy, Paris, killing him at Adams' house on Highlands Avenue.
“Anytime anyone loses a child, it touches people’s hearts. And I think my wife is still having a hard time with it,” neighbor Harvey Byrum told Channel 2’s Sophia Choi.
Police arrested Adams and charged her with second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children.
They said the grandmother was babysitting her grandson when two of her dogs attacked.
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“She had kept a few in a fence and then she kept a couple in her house,” Byrum said.
Investigators said she picked up her daughter Amy before heading to an urgent care where medical personnel pronounced Paris dead.
“I think it kind of shocked a bunch of my officers that something like this happened. The community seems quiet right now, but I’m pretty sure, and I know right now, the community is in prayer for the family,” Hartwell Police Chief Anthony Davis told Choi.
Police said Adams had a history of dogs getting into trouble. This time, police said, the two dogs inside this house ran out and attacked.
“The two that were in the house are the ones, I think had apparently been an issue at one time or the other,” Byrum said.
“We just had calls to her place -- dogs at large, barking, a nuisance. I think one had chased someone, hadn't bit anyone, had chased someone,” Davis said.
The Hart County district attorney said the dogs will be put down, possibly this week.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is now handling the case and was expected to do an autopsy on the toddler Wednesday.