MANSFIELD -- Police say a 3-year-old is "missing almost his entire right cheek of his face" after he was attacked by a pitbull Thursday.
According to a police report, a witness said she was sitting on the front porch of her Bartley Avenue home watching her son play with the 3-year-old in the front yard.
As the children played, the witness said she saw her neighbor's son attempting to pull their pitbull inside the home. When the son lost his grip on the dog, it ran from the porch into the yard, where it attacked the 3-year-old, knocking him to the ground.
The witness told police the dog latched on to the boy's face until it attempted to attack the other boy in the yard. The witness said her dog started to fight the pitbull, saving her son from being mauled.
The 3-year-old's mother took him to OhioHealth, where police say photos of his injuries were taken. According to the report, the boy was observed to be missing "almost his entire right cheek of his face" and suffered injuries to his rib cage and stomach.
The pitbull's owner told officers she didn't see the attack and didn't believe her dog bit anyone. The pitbull was permitted to stay with its owner.