A 16-month-old baby of a pit bull attack has been identified as Destiny Knox from Union County,Mississippi.

***********
***********
***********
***********
***********



Her body was taken to Jackson for an autopsy while sheriff's deputies investigated the killing, which occurred Thursday night when the child was attacked by a pit bull at her baby sitter's home.

Investigators say the mauling took place in the Martintown community.

The dog was usually kept chained near the house but had slipped out of its collar as family members were bringing in groceries and Destiny was on the floor nearby.

The County Deputy said that the dog followed the family inside the house.

Click to view image: '8b1ae732bc9a-pitbull.jpg'




A 19-year-old man in the house tried to intervene by hitting and stabbing the animal, but when emergency responders arrived, the child was already dead.

Deputies shot the dog - reportedly one of five dogs, all pit bulls, that the baby sitter owned.

"When the deputies arrived, the dog had to be put down at the scene. The dog was acting vicious," Whitten said.

Investigators found no signs that the dog had ever been mistreated.
Click to view image: '8b1ae732bc9a-pitbull.jpg'

"This dog was very healthy, very stout. It was well-kept, well-groomed," Whitten said.

Neighbors said the woman's dogs had always been kept restrained.

Holly Whaley, who also lives in the same mobile home park, never saw the dogs off their chains, but she feared them nevertheless.

"I walk around the area in morning times sometimes, but I'm too scared to walk down that way because them dogs are out there," she said.