Boy, 7, requires more than 100 stitches after pit bull attack in Rock Hil

By Andrew Dys - adys@heraldonline.com

Ravion Cunningham is one tough little guy. Even with more than 100 stitches in his face, and ear, and backside, 7-year-old Ravion — nicknamed “Ray Ray” — was able to walk around the block Saturday afternoon to the exact spot where he was mauled Wednesday by a neighbor's pit bull.

Ravion was playing in front of the Rich Street house next door to his grandmother's house Wednesday when the white pit bull ran from an opened door at a different neighbor's house.

“The dog chased me,” Ravion said.

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Ravion said he tried to jump over a fence to escape, but the dog grabbed him.

“He started biting me, and he dragged me around,” Ravion said.

Ravion was playing in front of Casandra Cousar's home at 432 Rich St. with Cousar's children and others. Cousar said she was on the porch, and, although several children were playing, the dog ran toward Ravion and grabbed him. Cousar said her daughter, De'Asia, 4, had gone across the street to 427 Rich St. and opened the door, and the dog ran outside.

“I ran out here with a stick and started hitting the dog,” Cousar said.

Cousar said a woman followed the dog across the street from 427 Rich St. after it ran out the open door. She pulled the dog from Ravion.

“She snatched the dog, and I grabbed Ray-Ray,” Cousar said.

Ravion was bloodied, and “his ear was just hanging,” said Barbara Cunningham, Ravion's grandmother. Ravion went home after his treatment at Piedmont Medical Center, his mother, LaQuantra Cunningham, said. However, Ravion had nightmares that first night, his mother said, and the attack hurt her son.

“My son could have lost his life,” LaQuantra Cunningham said.

A police report from the incident said the dog's owner received a citation for violation of the city's ordinance on vicious dogs, and then, the dog owner released the dog to animal control officers. Luis Muniz, who was at 427 Rich St. on Saturday and told The Herald he lives there and owns the dog, said his family gave the dog to animal control after the incident, and he told officers to have the dog euthanized.

Muniz showed The Herald the citation, which is written to Noemi Chavez Beltran, who Muniz identified as his wife. The citation shows a court date of Feb. 25 for the alleged violation of the dog ordinance.

Muniz said he was at work at the time of the incident but was told of what happened by his wife. Muniz said it was a neighbor's child who opened the door, allowing the dog to escape. Muniz also said his wife told him what Cousar said: that the wife followed the dog after it ran outside the home and pulled the dog off Ravion.

Muniz told The Herald on Saturday, “I am very sorry about what happened. I consider it a very bad accident.”

Muniz also said that the same dog, which he described as a 1-year-old pit bull mixed-breed named Macho, had bitten his son days before, and a report was filed with York County Animal Control.

Animal Control supervisors could not be reached Saturday, and workers at the animal control building in York said they were not allowed to comment.

Jim Beasley, a spokesman for the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control, said Saturday the dog was euthanized, and its brain tissue was sent to be tested for rabies. Results should be available later this week. Testing the dog does not mean that rabies is suspected but only that testing was warranted in this case, Beasley said.