A man is being charged with negligent homicide after his unrestrained dog attacked a little girl in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Police arrested 20-year-old Erick Lopez on January 6, after his huge pit bull attacked seven-year-old Sadie Davila and mauled her to death while she was playing in a front yard of a family member.

A sworn probable cause affidavit shows that the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call at around 5:30 pm on January 6 about a girl attacked by a dog. Detectives responded to the call from a home on Kendalwood Road to investigate the young girl’s attack.

The dispatcher told officers that the girl had sustained severe injuries caused by an attack by a large pit bull terrier and that she had died at the hospital.

According to the affidavit, Sadie had been playing outside a relative’s home when the dog, which belongs to the relative’s neighbor, brutally attacked her and caused severe injuries.

Sadie’s relative saw the attack and quickly tried to rescue the child. The relative tried to intervene and stop the vicious dog from attacking the child by beating it with a walking cane, but could not stop it.

The pit bull terrier continued to attack the child in the front yard, damaging her skull. Sadie eventually died from several dog bites on her face and the damage to her skull.

After the deadly attack on the child, the dog remained unrestrained until police and officers from Animal Control Office in East Baton Rouge (EBR) arrived and subdued it.

Responding officers observed that the pit bull had blood around its face and mouth. They also noted a great deal of blood in the front yard where the dog had attacked the girl.

According to investigators, there was no leash, barrier, or fence to confine the dog to its owner’s property.

Investigators arrested Lopez, and during his interrogation, he confessed to being the owner of the pit bull that killed Sadie, but he wasn’t home when the attack happened.

Lopez told authorities that he had left the dog unrestrained when he left his house and admitted that it was not the first time he left it unleashed, saying he would often let the animal roam the neighboring property unrestrained.

Sadie was a first grader at Woodlawn Elementary in East Baton Rouge School District.

In a statement on Facebook, East Baton Rouge Sheriff Sid Gautreaux consoled the family, saying they would remain in his prayers.