A Fort Lauderdale man is being called a hero today for prying open the jaws of a pit bull that mauled a 6-year-old girl last Thursday.
Nakaylah Smith was riding her bicycle in front on her home when the dog attacked.
"That dog really scared me and made me cry," Nakaylah said.
"And it just happened in a split second, the dog basically yanked her off the bike, and it was chaos from there," Nakaylah’s mother Kalandra Smith said.
"And look what he did, he just made me get all dirty and they had to clean me up," Nakaylah Smith said.
Cleaning up Nakaylah Smith meant 16 stitches in her leg. But mom and dad will take that over the much worse alternatives.
"I've probably never been that scared about anything in my entire life," Nakaylah’s father said.
"That's a worst nightmare, worst possible nightmare ever," Nakaylah’s mother Kalandra Smith said.
The neighbor's pit bull is usually chained to the mango tree. Thursday evening, it got through the gap in the fence, and latched on to the kindergarten graduate's leg. Dad wasn't home.
The neighbors sprinted into action. Mark Almy said it wasn’t easy pulling the beast off the little girl.
"Very hard, yes, it took every bit of strength, teeth were like razors, don't know why I didn't get cut up myself," Almy said.
Almy insists he's no hero. He credits a teenage boy who lives next door for helping, too. They're both heroic to the grateful parents.
"I’ve just got to be thankful that the neighbors were out there," Nakaylah’s father said.
So what could've been a tragedy ends up with a happy ending, at least for the humans involved. The dog's fate is in the hands of Broward County Animal Control.