A seven-year-old girl is in stable condition after being attacked by a pit bull in the hallway of a Harlem apartment building yesterday. Tatiana Quinones, accompanied by her older brother, had just emerged from an elevator around 3:30 p.m. at the Lincoln Houses in East Harlem when the dog pounced on her. Ryan Brown, a 21-year-old neighbor, heard screams and burst from his apartment to help the dog's owner pry the hound's mouth off of Tatiana's arm. "As the guy was opening the mouth I was easing the girl's arm out of his mouth," Brown tells NY1. "The wound was really bad, she had blood leaking everywhere."
“The dog jumped on her to get the ice,” neighbor Tonya James tells the Daily News. “The girl was screaming.” Quinones was rushed the hospital, where she received stitches on her left arm. She also sustained "large scratches across her neck," according to NBC New York. But her mother says the second grader remained calm during the ordeal: "She's really brave. She didn't cry. All she's worried about is how is she going to do her homework."
According to NY1, the dog was on a leash at the time and accompanied by Vincent Evans, who's been charged with reckless endangerment, obstructing governmental administration and acting in a manner injurious to a child. Apparently the dog belongs to Evans and his brother, Gary Evans, who was also charged with a violation for having the pit bull in the public housing project—pit bulls and 24 other breeds, including Rottweilers and Doberman pinschers, were banned by the NYCHA in 2009.
The dog, whom the Daily News identifies as "Big Blue," was taken by Animal Care & Control for evaluation, and another pit bull owned by Evans was also confiscated. The News also scored a striking photo of the smirking Evans brothers under arrest.
