Update: Monday, 3:28 p.m. -- The defendant was arraigned in 36th District Court today before Magistrate Dawn M. White and remanded to jail.
A 41-year-old Detroit man is charged with second-degree murder and manslaughter in last week's dog-mauling death of a 4-year-old boy.
Geneke Lyons, owner of four dogs, was arraigned Monday afternoon the Dec. 2 death.
"The evidence in this case will show that these dogs saw this child as a meal and we believe that we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the alleged actions of the defendant in this case rise to the level of murder in the second degree," Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy says in a statement.
"It is a gross understatement to say that this case is harrowing example of irresponsible pet ownership.”
The dogs have been described as pit bulls. The prosecutor's office said it's unclear if they were pure pit bulls.
Geneke Lyons during his video arraignment Monday afternoon. (Fox 2 News photo)
Detroit police responded at 12:24 last Wednesday to the 15000 block of Baylis on the west side, where Xiaver Strickland was dragged away from his mother by aggressive dogs as they walked past the owner's yard.
In all, four dogs attacked the child in the backyard of the house owned by Lyons, the prosecutor's office said.
A police sergeant observed the attack and fired his weapon to get the dogs off of the boy, authorities said. The child suffered massive wounds.
Three of the dogs were shot dead. A fourth dog was quarantined and later euthanized.
A press release says:
The defendant lived at the Baylis address and is alleged to have owned all four of the dogs involved in the attack. It is further alleged that the dogs were dangerous animals and had .escaped their fenced area in the past and had been a known problem in the neighborhood.
Lyons also faces a charge of possessing dangerous animals causing death.
Watch original report below.
