Bronx cops fatally shoot pit bull as it mauls owner to death: NYPD

Cops called to a Bronx apartment on Friday were forced to shoot and kill a pit bull that fatally mauled its owner — who recently got the dog to help him cope with the death of his daughter, according to relatives.

The officers were called shortly after 3 a.m. to the Simpson St. apartment near Home St. in Morrisania, where they found the dog’s powerful jaws locked onto the throat of Kaeem Robinson, 41.

Both cops opened fire on the dog, killing the animal, officials said.

“You could hear the biting,” said Gilbert, a building resident who lives down the hall from the victim. “That dog was really tearing him up.”

The neighbor said the early-morning quiet was shattered by the screams of a woman coming from Robinson’s apartment.

“I heard the girl that was inside the apartment yelling that the dog was attacking him and he was fighting him off,” Gilbert, 58, recalled. “It sounded like he was, like, biting … I was like, ‘Wow.'”

Gilbert said he called 911. A few moments after police arrived, he heard gunfire.

“When they came they had to break the door down. Then they had to shoot the dog because the dog was coming at them,” he said. “I feel bad about it. It was really rough. This dog was tearing him up. Then I didn’t hear them no more and that’s when [the young woman] said he was unconscious.”

The woman, Deborah Graham, spent the night hanging out with Robinson, who usually kept the Pit Bull in a cage, she said.

“When we came in, the dog had feces and urine all over the place. I don’t know how the dog got out of the cage, but he did,” Graham told News 12, recalling how she had warned Robinson about the dog.

“I said, ‘If you don’t get rid of that dog, that dog is going to hurt you,'” she said.

Graham said the officers fired three times.

“One officer fired one shot and one officer fired two shots and the dog went down,” Graham said.

EMS rushed Robinson to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The officers were taken to an area hospital to be treated for tinnitus.

Robinson’s relatives said he got the dog recently to help him cope with the loss of his 18-year-old daughter, who died from cancer a couple of years ago.

They said they knew little about the dog, and doubted Robinson had the proper paperwork that would have allowed him to have a dog in the apartment, where he had been living for less than a year after shuttling around in various shelters.

“We just found out about the dog ourselves,” said the victim’s sister, Kayesha Barnett, 38. “We’re trying to find out who he got the dog from. The dog was never supposed to be in there. He had no paperwork. I’m just not understanding how the dog got past security.”

Tenants said that about a third of the apartments in the building are reserved for people in special programs who need housing,

A neighbor said the apartment and hallway were smeared with blood.

Barnett said family members, including Robinson, are no strangers to dogs. She and her husband, Thomas, even own Pit Bulls themselves, so they are not down on the breed.

“Our dogs are like kittens. They’re kittens,” Thomas said. “They want to be petted, and they like food. Pit Bulls are not bad. It’s the temperament of the individual that raises them.

“It’s just sad what happened. You know post traumatic stress? It’s the same thing with animals. Something could have triggered it,” Thomas said.

Barnett said Robinson was still suffering over his daughter’s death. He also leaves behind three sons.

“The dog he got he was getting it to support him for the loss of his daughter,” she said. “His daughter was 18 when she passed, and that was two years ago.”

Robinson’s siblings said he worked as a home attendant caring for their uncle in the Bronx. They said it was a big step for Robinson to get a place of his own after living in shelters.

“It took him a couple years to get his own apartment,” his sister said. “I’m sorry that it had to go this way.”