Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

Arrests made in pit bull attack on boy

The parents of a 7-year-old North Las Vegas boy who was mauled by two pit bulls in February, said this morning they are glad that suspects have been arrested even if the charges are just misdemeanors.

Delbert Douglas, 36, and Mickey Williams, 35, both of North Las Vegas, each have been charged with five misdemeanor counts and, if convicted face a maximum of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine on each count.

Austin Bechtel faces years of therapy for emotional and physical scars and his family faces tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills.

"I'm happy people have been arrested and charged, and I can only hope that whatever the outcome the penalty will fit the crime," said Sean Hughes, father of Bechtel, who was mauled Feb. 23 outside his home in the 400 block of Villa Espana while playing with two friends. "We are only hoping for some small measure of justice."

"Austin is doing much better now," his father said, "though he has post-traumatic stress and we are helping him deal with it."

Hughes said he and the boy's mother, Andrea Hughes, have not yet decided whether to take civil action.

Douglas is slated to appear before North Las Vegas Municipal Judge Warren VanLanderschoot for arraignment at 8 a.m. on June 3. Williams faces an 8 a.m. June 5 arraignment before VanLanderschoot. They each posted $10,000 bail and were released this week from the North Las Vegas jail.

Douglas and Williams were arrested Monday by North Las Vegas Municipal Court warrant officers. Each is charged with owning a vicious animal, vicious animal at large, vicious animal attack, no animal license, no animal vaccinations.

The dogs were euthanized by authorities on March 11, North Las Vegas Police said.

Douglas and Williams lived in the same neighborhood as the Hughes family at the time of the attack, police said.

Neighbors today said the incident still sends shock waves through them. But they also said that since the day of the incident they had a good idea where the attacking dogs came from and were not surprised by the arrests.

"It was a shock when it happened because I had never seen the dogs loose before," said Rachel Connor, 42, who has lived in the neighborhood four years. "It was shocking just to know they were loose."

Connor, who lives on Villa Granada Way, just down the street from the 400 block of Rancho Del Mar, where Douglas and Williams resided, described her neighborhood as a quiet place where kids often ride bikes and play in the streets.

Conner and another neighbor said Douglas and Williams moved out of the neighborhood a few weeks to a month after the incident and had lived there for just a few months. There was no answer at the door today.

Neighbors said Douglas had repeatedly denied the dogs were his.

Bechtel, a first-grader at Raul P. Elizondo Elementary School, had to undergo several surgeries, including one to repair a skull fracture caused by one of the dogs.

After the incident his parents and authorities credited the boy with keeping the dogs from getting at a toddler and another friend, and they said his quick thinking -- collapsing into a protective ball position -- probably saved his life.

The Austin Bechtel Medical Fund has been established at Bank of America to help defray medical costs from the attack. Hughes said donors can go to any bank branch and make deposits.

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