Created: Posted on by

2010 Dog Bite Fatality: Pet Pit Bull Kills 3-Year Old Boy in Apple Valley

Omar Martinez was killed by a family pit bull
Omar Martinez, 3-years old, was killed by his family's pet pit bull.

No Criminal Charges
UPDATE 01/12/10: Investigators say they have found no evidence of negligence and have concluded that the death of Omar Martinez was a "misfortunate incident." This conclusion was drawn despite the pit bull's documented 30-year track record of seriously injuring and killing innocent children. At what point will authorities hold parents accountable for these preventable deaths? It is estimated that by 2014 or earlier, pit bulls will maul 200 Americans to death.1

01/10/10: Boy Killed in Backyard
Apple Valley, CA - Just nine days into the New Year and a pet pit bull has already killed another innocent child. Authorities say that 3-year old Omar Martinez died Saturday after he was bitten by his family's pit bull. Emergency personnel were dispatched shortly before 3:00 p.m. to a residence in the 23500 block of Goshute Avenue about a child not breathing after being attacked by a dog.The boy was transported to St. Mary Medical Center, where he was later pronounced dead.

Victorville Daily Press reports that the dog's owners were unable to gain control of the dog. When firefighters arrived, the pit bull, covered in blood, came out and started to attack firefighters. A San Bernardino County Sheriff’s deputy shot and killed the animal. Art Bishop, a deputy chief with the Apple Valley Fire Protection District, said the boy and his father had been in the backyard. The father stepped away briefly. When he returned, his son was on the ground not breathing.

      A pit bull bit a toddler on the throat Saturday afternoon and then tried to attack rescuers until a deputy shot the dog, officials said.

Someone at the scene in the 23500 block of Goshute Avenue tried to administer CPR following the 2:52 p.m. attack, according to initial reports.
The dog’s owners were unable to get control of the dog. And when firefighters arrived on scene, the dog, covered in blood, came out and started to attack firefighters, said Art Bishop, a deputy chief with the Apple Valley Fire Protection District.

A San Bernardino County Sheriff’s deputy shot the dog, Bishop said. - Don Holland, Victorville Daily Press, January 10, 2010

View Related ZUPF video

map iconView the DogsBite.org Google Map: California Fatal Pit Bull Maulings.
1This estimate is based upon calculating the average number of fatal pit bull maulings per year since 2005 (16) with the first recorded fatal pit bull attack being in 1982, Dog attack deaths and maimings, U.S. & Canada, September 1982 to December 22, 2009, by Merritt Clifton, editor Animal People.

Related articles:
09/29/09: 2009 Fatality: 23-Month Old Toddler Killed by Family Pit Bull
06/30/09: 2009 Fatality: 3-Year Old Gabrial Mandrell-Sauerhage Killed by Family Dogs
04/25/09: 2009 Fatality: Family Pit Bull Kills 11-Month Old Child in Eastpointe

Please donate to support our work

DogsBite.org is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt public charity organization. Learn more »
Subscribe to our email list »

19 thoughts on “2010 Dog Bite Fatality: Pet Pit Bull Kills 3-Year Old Boy in Apple Valley”

Please review our comment policy.

  1. Like the rest of U.S. county shelters, Apple Valley is dealing with a massive pit bull problem:

    Unwanted pit bulls make up more than two-thirds of the dogs brought into the local animal shelter. “About 70 percent of the dogs that come in are pit bulls,” said Kathy Williamson, manager of the Victor Valley Animal Protective League.
    —
    http://www.vvdailypress.com/news/pit-16611-apple-shelter.html

  2. And here we go. It's been a quiet couple of weeks so I knew one was well past due.

    Can I make a complaint against the use of "bitten"? The child was not "bitten", he was mauled (attacked, savaged, etc). I see enough of "bitten" in the nutter camp.

  3. Apple Valley is wide open spaces, if you wanted to hide, no one can find you. Lots of dog abuse, cockfighting, etc. in that area. The entire county of San Bernardino, where Apple Valley is located, is enundated with pits. It is estimated that their shelter pit population is around 60% or more. A pack of pits killed a man about three years ago. I saw those dogs, and they were vicious. One of the Board of Supervisors just happened to be touring the shelter while those pits were there and she was shocked when they charged the gate toward her. San Bernardino has had more than their share of DBR fatalities. Cash McCall was attacked by two large mix breeds while walking home from school. He asked his mother on the way to the hospital if he was doing to die, he did. No mother should have to listen to her child ask that question. A 2 year old was killed by breeding rotties and it was determined that by CA law the 2-year old child solicited her attack by entering the back yard. She and her father were visiting and went with the father's sister to her boyfriend's house. The sister and the boyfriend went to the store. The father and girl were watching TV when he went to the bathroom. That is when the little girl walked outside. Then there were the two breeding huskys that killed a 25 day old infant. One dog had been with the family for 6 years. There were tests to determine which dog actually did the killing, that dog was euthanized. But the father had the nerve to bail the other one out while his wife was in the psych ward and took it home to greet his wife when she got out of the hospital. Nice guy, huh? Plus there have been some serious maulings as well there. All these attacks were within a couple of years. Pits are a major problem there, they are everywhere, everyone it seems has them.

  4. This doesn't surprise me in San Bernardino at all. It's a haven for pits and lowlifes who like to own them. I'm just sorry that it was an innocent child who had to pay for his parents' poor choice of "pet". Pits aren't pets. When will people get this?

  5. PitBullus Maulus Maximus was never intended to be a family pet…When will they learn?!?

    Piticide number 83 since Jan 1 2005…RIP Little one.

  6. Just terrible. Poor kid didn't have a chance. What an outrage.

    Why won't national media report this bullshit! If there were a bear attack or shark attack, Katie Couric, CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC, Fox, etc., would report on it!

    I don't understand.

  7. So how long until Apple Valley figures out that dog fighters and puppy millers are taking over?

    No regulation, and the criminals run the show.

  9. Absolutely horrifying!

    Don, I agree — the pit nutters want everyone to think that there is a media conspiracy against pit bulls, yet these horrible deaths rarely ever make the national news outlets. I only know of these atrocities because they are compiled here at Dogsbite.org.

    I also think the terms "Bite" and "bitten" are gross misnomers when referring to pit bull attacks. In case any of you missed this great medical paper in the tweets, check it out. The photos are gruesome and everyone needs to see them. Pit nutters are not allowed to mark these as offensive in order to get them taken down…

    Multimedia report of catastrophic pit bull attack injury from Massachusetts General Hospital (Bites, Animal): http://tinyurl.com/yd2zoww

  10. I knew it had been quiet for too long, I just hope that this isn't the beginning of a storm of dog attacks and maulings. Maybe we'll be lucky and this will be the only fatality this year! Yeah, I know, only in my dreams!

    When will these *idiots* learn that pitbulls(and all their relations:ambulls, staffies, etc…)are not pets, but killing machines? I mean, come on, bears, coyotes, and cougars have more restraint than pitbulls! Even wolves steer clear of people if given the choice. I'd trust a wolf more than a pitbull, but I'm not stupid enough to trust either.

  11. "Ciavetta was not convicted of second degree murder because three members of the jury felt that the charges were too harsh,…"

    A carefully selected jury of your pit nuttering peers.

  12. One of the comments was from a lady who had returned a pit to the shelter there and learned (they didn't tell her prior) that the pit had been adopted out before and returned for biting. She requested euthanasia but learned they adopted the dog out again. She was concerned this was the same dog. The shelter there was an open door shelter by a non profit contracting for housing with the county until it became "no kill" just a year or so ago. I bet this is the shelter that continues to adopt out this dangerous pit because they are drowning in the koolaid of no kill. As I understand this pit may have papers which would mean it was purchased. Most shelters/rescues won't pass along papers on a dog even if they are available. But there are always those who will.

  13. That was Cash Carson, not McCall. Sorry

    Cash Carson — the boy who was killed while walking to his "fort"
    April 29, 2000, Newberry Springs, California. A pet sitter / house sitter named James Chiavetta, 54, was so afraid of the pit bulls at the house that he would use a stick to push their food dish under the fence. On the fateful day that Cash Carson, 10, walked up the street to get to his "fort", Ciavetta decided to take a nap, leave the dogs out front, but not check to see whether the front gate was closed. It was not. The dogs chased Cash and his friend, and killed Cash.

    Ciavetta was not convicted of second degree murder because three members of the jury felt that the charges were too harsh, in view of the fact that the dogs had never been trained, or known, to fight, attack or kill.

    This from Dog Bite Law says they were pits and it was originally report the dogs were mixes, not pits.

  15. Another child killed…I'm beginning to believe that the criminal industry related to Pit Bulls made the "Nanny Dog" story up.

  16. So how many children will die until this society stops catering to tax cheat breeders and their lobbies, and racketeering dog fighters?

  17. No doubt the SoCal Pit Bull Community will stage a "Punish the Deed" march in the response to no charges against the oowner once again.

  18. Another child in Texas mauled by four pit bull PUPPIES…

    http://www.tylerpaper.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100112/NEWS01/100119976

    “The child sustained dog bites all over her body, and had serious injuries to her face and head,” he said.

    You read that right….the dogs were 3 months old and 15 to 20 pounds each. Tell me of any other dog breed where three month old puppies actually put a child in the hospital. Its really insane that we have to have this conversation.

Comments are closed.