Dogs bite young girl in New Athens

Around 6 p.m. Thursday, New Athens police asked the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department to assist them with a call because the suspect was an employee of the police department.

Sgt. Alan Haake met with the 8-year-old victim of a dog bite at Belleville Memorial Hospital. The victim told police she was walking with a friend on South Street when two German Shepherd dogs ran up to her and started sniffing her. The dogs then began biting her and pulled her to the ground. She was screaming and someone ran up and scared the dogs off, police said. She had bite marks on her left leg, chest area, back, and scratches on her neck.

A witness told police she saw the dogs dragging the 8-year-old down the alley. She used a softball bat to strike the dogs until they ran off. The owner of the dogs, former New Athens Police Chief Dallas Hill, stated he was in Fairview Heights at the time of the incident and no one else was home. He had left his two dogs in his fenced in back yard.

Hill was able to secure his dogs, and St. Clair County Animal Control picked them up on Friday. Deputies issued a non-traffic citation to Hill for violating the dogs running at large ordinance in St. Clair County ordinance.

Hill was charged last year with stealing items — an iPad and iPod — from his police department’s evidence room and was placed on administrative leave.


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Corey Saathoff

Corey is the editor of the Republic-Times. He has worked at the newspaper since 2004, and currently resides in Columbia. He is also the principal singer-songwriter and plays guitar in St. Louis area country-rock band The Trophy Mules.
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