The Baby's Parents Work in Law Enforcement and EMS
Malia Scott Winberry, 10-months old, was killed by a pair of family rottweilers.
Rottweilers Kill Baby
Angier, NC - A 10-month old baby girl died Tuesday after being attacked by a pair of family rottweilers. Johnston County deputies responded to a home on Riparian Court in Willow Spring about 8:00 pm. When deputies arrived, the baby was unresponsive. Johnston County Sheriff Steve Bizzell said the baby's father stepped outside briefly and was speaking to a neighbor when he heard a commotion inside. He went back inside to find the rottweilers attacking the baby.
"Bizzell said the father is a law enforcement officer in Wake County, and the mother works for Johnston County’s EMS." - Multiple news reports
Other details released by police include, "an investigation determined the father, who is a law enforcement officer, had briefly left the baby unattended in the home to go outside and move a sprinkler in the yard. He heard a commotion and when he went back inside, the girl had been attacked by the family's dogs," as reported by WTVD News. These are similar circumstances to the fatal mauling of a baby in Dallas in 2015 by a family pit bull the mother called a "Big Baby."
This region of North Carolina is known as the Triangle (Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill). Last month, in the adjacent Wake County, a 7-year old girl was killed by two pit bulls. The location of this attack is about 15 miles from the Town of Garner, where Jayden Henderson was killed and her mother was severely injured by two pit bulls they were caring for while their owners were away. The owners of those pit bulls are still fighting to get these dangerous dogs returned to them.
Baby Identified
On Wednesday, police identified the baby as Malia Scott Winberry. When deputies arrived at the scene, they found her father, Scott Winberry, rendering aid to her. "The Sheriff’s Office and EMS responded but were unsuccessful on reviving the child," Johnston County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Danny Johnson said. "It’s a bad scene," he said during a Tuesday press conference. This is "very hard in us all because we all have children. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family."
A spokeswoman for Johnston County Emergency Services, where the mother of the child works, Bianca Patel, said they were "deeply saddened by the tragic loss of Malia," and was "offering support services to the family." Both dogs were taken into custody by Johnston County Animal Services. The director, Chad Massengill, confirmed the dogs have been declared dangerous by the county. "It's very solemn around here this morning," he said. "It's very difficult to deal with."
A 2019 Facebook post by Patel shows that the rottweilers had escaped the family's yard in the past. Presumably, Abbi and Joker are the two rottweilers. "Joker," the dog wearing the red collar, "likes to dig," Patel stated. "There is an electric fence but it was not plugged in at the time," Patel wrote. Both rottweilers are "fixed" and "with papers," according to the post. That did not stop the rottweilers from roaming. Sterilization also plays no role in altering breed-specific behaviors.
"Code Blue" Call
Audio dispatch logs from Johnston County Public Safety reveal the call came in as a "code blue." Recall they are responding to the home of a Johnston County Emergency Services employee. Since the 1980s, rottweilers have been the second top killing dog breed in the U.S. This is why we created the fatal rottweiler attack archive. Rottweilers consistently show just how dangerous they are, particularly to young children. There were no recorded fatal rottweiler attacks in 2020.
One or both family rottweilers seen at different times before the fatal attack on Tuesday.
View the DogsBite.org Google Map: U.S. Fatal Rottweiler Attacks By StateRelated articles:
05/26/21: Fatal Rottweiler Attacks - The Archival Record - DogsBite.org
05/20/21: 2021 Dog Bite Fatality: Child Killed, Mother Hospitalized While Caring for Neighbor's...
Law enforcement departments across the United States should release consistent "baseline" information to the media and the public after each fatal dog mauling, including these items.
By all accounts, this is a couple that should have known better. I am sure that last month while at work, each of them discussed the Garner case with their coworkers, and then together at night, husband and wife discussed it and concluded, “Our dogs would never do that.” It appears they have a “modern” view of dogs. I base this on the “cutesy” photo of one of the rottweilers putting its snout and paw up to the mom’s gravid belly. This was likely interpreted as the dog saying hello to its brother/sister who was just a bun in the oven and clearly a noteworthy moment that had to be captured and shared for likes. A similar photo shows one of their babies in a standing walker with a dog-brother saying hello. The thought that an electric fence would contain a large, powerful breed of dog is also baffling and well, modern.
A cop owning a muscled, protection, police breed is comically stereotypical. Malia would still be on this earth if they had two cats or two dogs of many other breeds.
Captured and shared for likes? Sounds like narcissism in action.
That poor baby never had a chance.
At 2:11 pm Arizona time, an hour and a half ago, I go pro videoed a loose Rottweiler in the street at 1647 Cedarwood Drive. I called it into animal control, and the owners got a warning. The surface of the earth is not hostile enough, people have to bring predator animals into our neighborhoods and let them loose on the street, and let them loose at their children. By the way, this particular news story made national news. Because thousands and thousands of severe injuries every year go unreported in the news, the public is misled and deceived into thinking that severe maulings almost never occur.
wow u did a great service sir! thank u for doing that -glad it made national news-glad it didnt get censored out right away-and ur right about certain types of dogs and pretty much any large breed beeing like predators in neighborhoods-infact they re even worse than wild predators because atleast wild animals are usually afraid to approach humans-unless they have rabies
People who are not brain dead innately have some semblance of the correct thought somewhere inside their minds that power breed canines are not designed to be family pets. That power breed canines pose an unreasonably elevated risk of grave threat to any family member, and to any human being that may somehow come to be in reasonable proximity to the power breed canine. Yet, people, who are social defects, are drawn to the negative attractor of dangerous canine breed ownership. Our society, and our layers of government, which are manifest obviously spiritually defective to an extreme degree, are not going to be part of the solution to the tragedy that injuriously victimizes a few million Americans every year.
The responsible adults will claim that they had no clue that the two power breed canines could obviously be an unreasonable risk to the child. This will allow them to be immune to any criminal charge for the death of the child that they were responsible for. If all of our layers of government were not Evil-based, but instead Love-based, this obviously false defense would be concretely legislatively repealed. Then the responsible adults can be criminally prosecuted for some degree of homicide and/or manslaughter. But no! Instead we allow people to place the victim in grave risk of grave threat, with legal impunity.
You’re correct about the “power breed” problems with having rottweilers in homes that do not understand them.
I adored them in protection work. Rottweillers are brave, driven, intelligent and take direction from *those they respect* very well. They are excellent “one person” dogs. Some, from the right breeding lines, are superb with children as well. Note I said, “Some”.
I can’t stand them in the hands of inexperienced owners. Why? Because they are brave, driven, intelligent, aren’t worked and many have zero respect for stupid handlers.
Rottweilers show tons of signs they’re going “off” in most cases. They don’t hide their intentions all that well. The problem is–inexperienced owners don’t see it, they may encourage it by ignorance, or they do see the signs and they panic or are embarrassed or they don’t have enough money to engage a trainer who is experienced in helping them fix it. And if they do hire a good trainer–they often can’t follow through with the management plan.
They are just a plain bad choice for a first-time or average dog owner that doesn’t have some real world dog handling experience with high-drive dogs.
Sure they could get lucky and get the most submissive Rottweiler from a very friendly line of Rottweilers but that’s a crapshoot and not one that someone expecting a family should attempt.
If these were spaniels, it’s likely the father would come inside and find his baby drowning in slobber, not blood.
Not one, but two rottweilers. As usual, these owners of large, powerful, agressive breeds just have to own more than one. Poor baby never stood a chance.
Possibly because the showed signs of aggression before this and the owners bought the kool-aid that fixing a dog will fix its aggression?
Just spitballin’ from experience, here…
Rest in Heaven, baby Malia. You never stood a chance.
Having any power breed dog living in a home with a child is utterly irresponsible and delusional.
People just never learn.
That dog is “mouthing” the mother’s hand in that picture, a pure sign of aggression.
The picture of the dog obsessed with the woman’s body was scary and repulsive. Made me want to kick that beast out of the picture. He was smelling a future meal.
First it was move the sprinkler…then it was talk to the neighbor. He worked with police k-9 and those dogs were trained. This death is very suspicious.