911 Calls: Panic After Dog Attack

UPDATE (5 p.m. Tuesday): Deputies have released photos of the dogs believed to be involved in the fatal Sunday attack. See the images here.

The family of a 2-year-old boy killed in a dog attack Sunday evening is heard praying for mercy for the child as they also plead for emergency help in 911 recordings released Tuesday.

The boy's grandmother is clearly panic-stricken during the first few moments of the phone call.

The boy's mother "didn't say she was leaving ... He must have ran after her," Cathy Tiller, 57, tells a 911 operator. The dogs are "always chasing the children."

Police believe one or both dogs that lived on the family's unincorporated Mount Pleasant property attacked Ja'Marr Moore while his mother ran errands around 8 p.m. Sunday. She believed the boy was asleep when she left.

On the 911 calls, the grandmother hands the phone to another relative, who describes a horrible scene.

"This baby is all bite (SIC) up," the unidentified woman says. "He doesn't even look like he's breathing."

The child was transported by EMS to the Medical University of South Carolina, but he was already dead, said Charleston County Coroner Rae Wooten. He had multiple blunt and sharp-force injuries all over his tiny body, she said.

The child's aunt, while getting instructions on how to perform mouth-to-mouth on the child, calls for praying oils as she shouts for mercy.

"Get the oil; annoint him," Octavia Johnson yells. "In the name of Jesus... Lord, we need you."

The Charleston County Sheriff has called in a forensic animal bite expert to compare the child's injuries to the two dogs. He's hoping to conclusively link the injuries to one or both of the animals.

Until then, the canines are being held in the county's animal shelter.

Another child in Dorchester County was killed in April after being dismembered by a family pet.

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