Police fatally shoot dog who bit toddler

A dog named Charlie was shot and killed by police in Concord Friday afternoon after biting a 10-month-old boy in the face and “aggressively challenging” responding officers, according to a spokesman for Contra Costa County Animal Services.

Dispatchers received a call from the victim’s mother at 4:40 p.m. in the 2100 block of Fremont Street.

Concord Police officers attempted to enter the residence but Charlie, described as a large Shepherd-Mastiff mix weighing roughly 80 pounds, confronted them. The officers were reportedly forced to shoot the dog three times in the chest area, according to animal services spokesman Steve Burdo.

Investigators later determined the victim’s mother had been putting laundry away in a bedroom when she heard Charlie growl, and another child scolded him. She immediately returned to pick up the baby, and that’s when Charlie attacked.

The family put the dog outside and called 911. The child was later transported to a hospital with a puncture wound on the right side of his face and a cut on his forehead.

Charlie was 16 months old, and the family had owned him since just a few weeks after he was born. He had never exhibited aggression to the child before, however.

The dog be tested for rabies, per department protocol, Burdo said.