MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. – Seven-year-old K’lonie Hughes was still in some pain on Friday after a dog attacked her about two days ago in northwestern Miami-Dade County.
The first-grade student said she was playing in her front yard in Miami Gardens. She lives steps away from Vista Verde, a public park along Northwest 207 Street.
“I had seen a dog, a white and brown dog, walk past me, and then it came in the gate,” K’lonie said while next to Carletha Rodgers, her grandmother.
Surveillance video from a neighbor’s camera shows the dog was on the loose. K’lonie ran and screamed, as the dog quickly charged her.
“I was trying to get away.”
K’lonie suffered leg bites. Fire Rescue personnel used a helicopter to fly her to Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital on Wednesday evening.
“There was a big bite,” K’lonie said.
Amid an ongoing investigation, Miami-Dade Animal Services personnel later responded to Miami Gardens to meet with the dog owner and the victim’s guardian.
Rodgers said the dog lives with neighbors down the street from her home and her granddaughter required stitches at the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital.
K’lonie was back home on Friday afternoon and will have to miss school until she heals. Rodgers said she will also require costly physical therapy.
“She still has a long road to recovery,” Rodgers said later adding, “It could have been a deadly situation.”
A Miami-Dade Animal Services worker seized the dog and it remained unclear Friday if it will be euthanized.
A GoFundMe has been set up to help with K’lonie’s medical expenses.