The 911 call of the terrifying moments after a Deerfield Beach boy was attacked by a pit bull was released Friday.
"There's a dog, there's a dog that's biting my friend and he won't stop, he's bleeding," the young friend of 8-year-old Nicholas Garvey is heard telling the operator. "Please send someone!"
Garvey was riding his bike with two friends in the 300 block of Southeast 1st Terrace around 6:30 p.m. Sunday when they saw the pit bull charge towards them.
The animal chased Garvey, knocked him off his bike and began attacking him. The pit bull then followed the boy into his friends' house, where the friend's mother, Sharon Haynes, tried to fend it off with anything she could.
"What kind of dog is it?" the 911 operator asks.
"It's a pit bull, can you send someone please!" the boy pleads, barely able to be heard over the noise of yelling and screaming in the background.
"Is the dog still biting your friend?" the operator asks.
"Yes, it won't stop and it just bit my mom," the boy replies.
At one point, Haynes gets on the phone.
"Please, please hurry up! The dog is still in the front...the dog is outside in front of the door," she says. "Oh Lord have mercy, please help me, please come over. The dog bit the boy up."
Deputies arrived and the dog took off running, Broward Sheriff's Office spokesman Mike Jachles said. By the time deputies caught up to it on foot, it was trying to attack another dog.
Officers were able to keep the pit bull at bay until Animal Care and Regulation workers came and caged it.
Nicholas was airlifted to Broward General Medical Center with wounds all over his face and body. The dog took a chunk out of his mouth and ankle. He has at least 30 stitches in and around his eye.
"It started to hurt after the first time he bit me, and it was very painful," Garvey said. "Super scary, I thought I was going to get killed."
The Broward County Sheriff's office says it cited the owner for not restraining, registering and vaccinating the dog. She told police she didn't know how the pit bull got out of his cage.
Doctors expect Nicholas to make a full recovery. He said if Haynes hadn't fought the dog off he might not have made it.
"She saved my life, definitely, and I'm very thankful for that," Garvey said.
