Father charged after dog bites, kills 3-year-old girl, an increasingly common tragedy
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The father of a 3-year-old girl killed in a dog attack in Ohio late last year is facing charges in connection with his daughter's death, court records show.
Warren Houston, 45, was indicted by a Hamilton County grand jury Tuesday on involuntary manslaughter, reckless homicide and endangering children, according to court documents. Houston's daughter, Kingsley Wright, was killed on Dec. 27 in a dog attack while at her father's apartment in the Cincinnati neighborhood of Roselawn for the holidays.
Kingsley is one of a rising number of victims of fatal dog attacks, a problem that has caused controversy among neighbors, advocates and local officials nationwide.
Houston was not listed as an inmate at the Hamilton County Justice Center as of Wednesday morning. It is currently unclear when he will make his first court appearance.
What happened in Kingsley Wright dog attack?
According to 911 call recordings and police documents, Houston called Cincinnati police at 7:50 a.m., just after he reported waking up. He said he walked into the living room and found Kingsley lying dead on the floor.
"She's completely tore apart," Houston told the dispatcher.
After giving his daughter's description to the dispatcher, who told him to put away any pets in the home before officers arrived, Kingsley's father said they had terriers, and that the dogs were already in their cages.
He told the dispatcher there was one other person in the apartment and they woke up at the same time. Houston said there did not appear to be a break-in because the front door to the apartment was locked.
"I don't understand what went on," Houston said.
After the attack, Cincinnati Animal CARE was called to remove three dogs from the home. The dogs were taken to the animal shelter to be held for a state-mandated 10-day quarantine period, Lisa Colina, a shelter spokesperson, previously told the Cincinnati Enquirer, part of the USA TODAY Network.
Dogs are mauling and killing more people nationwide
Dogs have bitten, mauled and killed an increasing number of people in recent years. In the same month Kingsley was killed, a 26-year-old man was fatally attacked by his three dogs and a 5-year-old girl was killed by two of her family's dogs in California. Late last month, a 62-year-old deaf grandmother died after being mauled by three neighborhood dogs outside a Missouri home.
Prosecutors have sought to hold dog owners criminally responsible for fatal attacks before. In Ohio's Pickaway County, a mother and son whose two dogs killed their 73-year-old neighbor are currently standing trial on charges of felony involuntary manslaughter.
In the past decade, the number of fatal dog attacks more than doubled, from an average of roughly 40 a year to nearly 100 after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Fatal dog attacks are rising.What to do about it pits neighbor against neighbor
The number of bites each year has also increased, experts say, from the most recent estimate 20 years ago of 4.5 million to untold millions today. Nationwide, 1 million of the people bitten by dogs require medical treatment each year. Children under 10 account for nearly half of bite victims and are overrepresented in fatalities.
Experts say more must be done to save lives, but exactly how to stop the rising number of canine attacks has become an extremely divisive issue.
Contributing: Aaron Valdez, Cincinnati Enquirer; Cybele Mayes-Osterman, USA TODAY
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