Lea Freeman 4 year old Dallas, Texas girl killed in dog attack after being left inside home with no adults. Girl’s mauling death follows previous calls to CPS demanding that the dogs or Lea and her younger siblings be removed from the Oak Cliff residence by concerned neighbor.
A 4 year old Dallas, Texas area girl died in a dog attack over the weekend after being left inside an Oak Cliff residence without any adults inside the premises.
Lea Freeman was identified as the child killed during Saturday’s fatal dog attack circa 8am that morning, July 9.
The girl’s mother, Tiara Freeman, said she and her children had moved in with a friend who owned three pit bulls at the home near Bonnie View Road. On the day of the attack, the mom said she had ‘quickly’ stepped out, going to a store while asking the co-occupant to take care of the children.
‘When I went to get my wallet, my baby was just fine, she was sweet, she saw me leave, she asked where I was going, I said ‘I’m going to the store real quick, I’ll be right back, I’ll back.’ I come home, and this happens,’ the mother told via KXAS-TV.
The details of what specifically happened next are still under investigation, but Freeman described what she found when she came back shortly after.
This is 4-year-old Lea Freeman.
She was killed after dogs attacked her in a home in Oakcliff.Her mother is sharing this photo and says this should’ve never happened, she left her child with a friend who was supposed to be babysitting. DPD is investigating @CBSDFW pic.twitter.com/XalXWPCgu4
— Alexis Wainwright (@AWainwrightTV) July 11, 2022
‘She was the babysitter…’
‘We all go in the house and she (her friend she lives with) said, ‘Oh my God Lea!’ I go around the corner and I’m like ‘ Lea no!’ I’m crying, picking up my baby and I’m getting bitten up by her dogs.’
The mother also said that one of the dogs took her daughter’s life but the other canines, believed to be pit bulls, also had something to do with it. Lea was rushed to hospital but couldn’t be saved.
Tiara claimed, ‘Rambo attacked, but I got a feeling Rawlow and Reina had something to do with it too,” before adding, “I just feel tragic, my mind is not functioning, I’m just not functioning right, I’m just not thinking straight. I just miss that she’s not here with me, she’s not here to go to school next month, she’s not here to play with her sisters.’
‘She was the babysitter,’ Freeman said of her friend and co-occupant of the home. ‘And she was just out here talking for like 20 minutes and didn’t even hear my baby in there fighting for her life.’
Even neighbors said the sitter left the kids in the house alone.
‘She was never supposed to be left alone in that house with those pit bulls,’ neighbor Michael Pennington told the Dallas Morning News.
The neighbor said that the dogs were known to be dangerous and ‘had gotten out of the house multiple times by jumping through a broken window.’
CPS previously called
When he heard the dogs through the window Saturday morning, he thought the dogs were fighting each other. That was until he heard his neighbor screaming.
The neighbor claimed that the mother was not at home when Lea was killed, while the other woman was talking to neighbors outside the house. Michael’s sister Lorie also said that the dogs had terrified her in the past as well. She accused one of the animals of attacking her 15-year-old niece nearly a month ago but nothing serious happened. Another neighbor Brenda Lewis agreed with the Penningtons as she said, ‘I won’t even let my grandkids come outside because the dogs are just running around.’
Lorie also stated that she called 3-1-1 and complained about the dogs earlier this spring but no action was taken. ‘I told them we have some pit bulls that my neighbor has and they keep getting out and they can’t keep them in’.
Lorie added calls to Child Protective Services were also made, following concerns for the well-being of the 4-year-old girl and the two younger children.
‘If the city of Dallas would have came out and did something about the dogs when everyone was letting them know that the dogs are getting out and if CPS had listened and did what they were supposed to do, they could have removed those kids out of the house.’
‘They (CPS) should have either said, ‘You have to get rid of the dogs or the kids got to go,’ Lorie added.
A spokesperson added it is investigating the death along with Dallas Police and that as of Sunday two surviving children were in the care of separate parents.
Come Monday afternoon, Dallas Animal Services had taken all three dogs from the home.
To date Dallas Police said no charges had been filed.
