Boy, 7, on mend after dog attack

By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.

jgoodwin@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Mental and physical recovery are coming slowly to a 7-year-old boy attacked by a pit bull, but the family is just glad he is still alive.

It has been a little more than a week since Keyshaun Fleeton was attacked by a pit bull-mastiff while playing with a friend on the city’s West Side.

He initially was taken to Akron Children’s Hospital in Boardman with bite marks to his wrist, thigh, toe and groin area, then taken to the hospital’s main campus in Akron.

According to police reports, the boy was playing in the driveway of a home at 29 N. Hazelwood Ave. with another child who lives in the home when the dog got out of a fenced-in area to the rear of the home and attacked him.

The young boy ended up with more than 40 stitches to various parts of his body where the dog had bitten him and, according to his father, emotional scars that are just as hard to heal.

Mose Fleeton, Keyshaun’s father, said his son was scheduled to start school Monday but was unable to do so because of his recovery from the dog attack.

“They say he is recovering well, but he had an appointment with a psychiatrist because he is screaming in his sleep and still having nightmares,” Fleeton said.

Fleeton said watching Keyshaun’s recovery from the attack also has been difficult for the family. Seeing the scars on his son’s body, he said, brings back memories from the attack.

“I feel the pain for my son,” he said. “He is scarred and will be scarred for life. It hurts me that I wasn’t there for my baby when he was screaming.”

Still, through all the pain of recovery, Fleeton is happy to have his son alive and recovering at home. He realizes how bad the attack could have been and is grateful that more damage was not done.

The dog’s owner, Michael Meuter, voluntarily handed the dog over to representatives of the Mahoning County dog warden’s office shortly after the attack. Officials discovered the dog had been involved in three previous bite incidents before attacking the boy.

Sean Toohey, deputy dog warden, interviewed Keyshaun earlier this week and is collecting information on the previous bite incidents involving the dog. He said he hopes to file charges against the dog’s owner as early as today.

The dog, Toohey said, will be put down Wednesday.