{"id":172545,"date":"2026-04-22T05:49:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T05:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/172545\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T05:49:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T05:49:21","slug":"child-attacked-small-dog-killed-by-another-dog-in-verona-police-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/172545\/","title":{"rendered":"Child attacked, small dog killed by another dog in Verona, police say"},"content":{"rendered":"

A child was attacked, and a puppy was killed during a dog attack in Verona, police said.\u00a0Verona Police said<\/a> that the incident happened just after 5 p.m. on Monday in the area of Riverbank Park along Arch Street.<\/p>\n

According to police, officers who responded to the area determined that a dog had gotten loose from a nearby home and attacked the child and the small dog.<\/p>\n

\"img-7060-720.jpg<\/p>\n

A child was injured and a small dog was killed when another dog got lease from a home near Riverbank Park in Verona, attacking the dog and child.<\/p>\n

KDKA Photojournalist Brian Smithmyer<\/p>\n

Liam Swartzwelder and his 7-month-old puppy Simba were out for a walk when he says the neighbor’s Doberman got loose and came after them. The attack unfolded in seconds.<\/p>\n

“I tried to get our puppy into the playground and close the gate, but he jumped onto my back and pushed me down before I was able to,” said Swartzwelder.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Liam was hurt trying to intervene and was taken to UPMC Children’s Hospital and treated for minor injuries. The puppy, just adopted a day earlier, didn’t survive. <\/p>\n

Liam’s mother was on the porch of their home, directly across from the park, when the incident unfolded. She said she knew immediately something was wrong.<\/p>\n

“It was pure terror hearing my son scream, hearing the dogs go nuts. You knew what was happening right when you heard the screaming,” Liam’s mother, Leanne Swartzwelder, said.<\/p>\n

Police say the dog had a history of aggression, yet it was still in the community. A neighbor told KDKA-TV that her 12-year-old daughter was attacked similarly last year.<\/p>\n

No charges were filed after that attack, and the dog was not removed.<\/p>\n

An update from police said that after consulting with the Pennsylvania Dog Wardens, criminal charges have been filed against the owner of the dog that got loose from the home.<\/p>\n

“We chose to charge the dog’s owner with dog-related offenses for not being able to keep his dog contained, per state law,” said Chief Thomas Dessell with the Verona Police Department.<\/p>\n

The dog is set to be euthanized on Wednesday. \u00a0Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact the Verona Police Department.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n More from CBS News\n <\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A child was attacked, and a puppy was killed during a dog attack in Verona, police said.\u00a0Verona Police…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":172546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[39496,73,75,74],"class_list":["post-172545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-dog-attack","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=172545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/172546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=172545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=172545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=172545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}