The breed’s public relations problem seems justifiable.
It’s no wonder the pit bull has a PR problem. All it takes is two vicious attacks in less than two weeks against small children to bolster arguments that the breed is a dangerous monster with no place in a community setting. On Tuesday, James Hendrix, peered into his neighbor’s yard just in time to witness a large pit bull ripping a toddler’s scalp from his head. Got to BET.com/News for more on this story.

The suspect pulled along a California road, where he stomped the child.

The police bullets that killed a 27-year-old northern California man were too late. When officers in Stanislaus County rolled up on the man along a dark, country road Saturday night, they saw him kicking, punching and stomping a toddler. They fired, killing the unidentified man, but not before the man had killed the child, estimated by the Stanislaus County coroner to be between 1 and 2 years old. “It’s been a long night of wondering, ‘Why?’ – not only for the officers and the passers-by who stopped and tried to help out, but for anyone. Why would somebody do this?” said sheriff’s deputy Royjindar Singh. Authorities say they do not know the relationship between the child and the man. The injuries were so severe, Singh said, that the child will have to be identified through a blood or DNA test. The suspect’s four-door pickup truck had a child’s car seat in the back; it caught the attention of an elderly couple late Saturday evening because it had stopped in a two-lane road, facing the wrong direction, Singh told The Associated Press. When they got closer, the couple saw the man pummeling the child behind the truck and throw him to the ground, the deputy said. “What we got from witnesses is he was punching, slapping, kicking, stomping, shaking,” Singh said. “They tried to intervene and get involved, but their efforts really didn’t have an effect. The suspect was engaged in what he was doing. He just pushed them off and went back to it.” Paramedics tried unsuccessfully to resuscitate the toddler, who was taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.