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Police: Baby girl attacked by family's pet dog, who shook her like a 'baby doll', has died [Update]
by Jennifer Dzikowski, Contributor
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The 1-year-old North Carolina girl brutally attacked by her family's pet dog last week has died.
The Edgecombe County Sheriff's Office announced the death of Triniti Harrell on Monday, WRAL reports.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, the October 22 attack occurred on the back porch at a home off of the 1200 block of N.C. 43 North, located just outside of Rocky Mount.
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The little girl's mother, Miranda Harrell, reportedly stabbed the dog, described as a 6-year-old pit bull mix, in an attempt to save her child's life during the attack.
"This animal was strong and she did try to stab it, beat it, and get him off and it did not work," Edgecombe County Sheriff Cleveland Atkinson Jr. stated at a press conference.
In a 911 call recording obtained by WRAL, the mother could be heard desperately pleading for assistance as she attempted to remove Triniti from the dog's grasp.
"I need some help. My dog is attacking my daughter," Harrell told a 911 dispatcher. "Hurry, she's dying. Please hurry."
According to the news station, "the dispatcher instructed her to use a stick to pry the dog's mouth open, to hit the dog on the head with a heavy object and, finally, to use a knife to slit the dog's throat so it would release the child."
A responding officer subsequently found the victim in apparent distress, with the baby being held between the dog's jaws as it relentlessly shook her.
"They described it as the pit bull shaking a doll baby," Atkinson said. "That's how aggressive it was."
The officer subsequently fired two shots at the dog, identified as a 6-year-old pit bull mix, killing it.
The girl was airlifted from a local hospital to Vidant Medical Center, where her condition was upgraded to stable last week. At the time, her family was hopeful that the little girl would survive the vicious attack.
Triniti was later transferred to UNC Hospital in Chapel Hill, where she was pronounced dead, according to CBS 17.
Dogsbite.org identified the mother's boyfriend on Facebook, and reported that he owned "a pit bull named Kilo." The website cited a photograph of the animal on the man's profile page, with a caption that reportedly read, "hate he like to kill s**t but o well I love him either way (haha those poor lil bunnies" [sic].
No charges are expected to arise from the case, Atkinson said at last week's press conference.
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[Feature photo: Triniti Harrell/Family Handout]
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