Pennsylvania
Owner agrees to euthanize dog 3 months after it attacked 4-year-old neighbor in Chester County
A Chester County woman agreed to have her dog put down on Thursday to settle an attack on her neighbor’s small child that happened back in November of 2025.
“The dogs got out of our neighbor’s house. One ran at the fence and climbed the fence and bolted for my four year old. Knocked him over, grabbed him by the mouth at the top of his arm and shook him across the ground,” Whitley Coggins said.
Coggins told NBC10 that her son is still terrified of his neighbor’s dogs almost three months after he was attacked by one of them.
Chief Brazunas said that this is not the first biting incident this dog was involved in, but this was serious enough to charge the owner.
“This neighborhood has been dealing with issues with the dogs at this residence since 2022,” Downingtown Police Department Chief Brendan Brazunas said.
On Feb. 5, the dog’s owner agreed to have the dog taken to the SPCA to be euthanized which ends the criminal case.
Now, the boy’s family plans to take civil action against the owner.
The family is relieved they no longer have to worry about that specific dog but the neighbor owns three more so they say they’re still not going to feel totally safe when they walk outside their house.
“The both of them scream when we are walking from our front door to the car,” Coggins said. “They ask me and daddy to make sure they have bats and make sure the front door is closed to the neighbor’s house.”
Through her lawyer in court, the owner of the dogs offered an apology to her neighbors.
She still faces other citations for other problems with the other dogs that she owns.
The judge in this case warned the owner to do a better job keeping her dogs under control, but Coggins told NBC10 that doesn’t came her nerves even a little bit.
“I’m gonna leave here and drive to my home and get my kids out of my car and still have to watch her front door. This doesn’t fix our problem, it’s a step in the direction we needed to go in but the dogs need to go,” she said.
New moms now have more support with the statewide expansion of a mom-to-mom texting program through a nonprofit called NurturePA.
Six thousand moms in Allegheny County have used the free service since NurturePA started it in 2014. It’s now open to anyone in Pennsylvania who’s pregnant or caring for a child up to age five. Trained mentors, who are moms themselves, are paired with a new mom for anonymous, nonjudgmental texting support.
Sharon Welburn used the service with her firstborn child and loved having someone to vent to and learn from.
“I didn’t realize how common jaundice in babies was until my baby was jaundiced,” Welburn said. “I was panicking that I did something wrong, and then my mentor texted, ‘You’re OK. You’re not doing anything wrong. It’s something that sometimes happens. My kid had jaundice when they were born.’”
The trained mentors screen for postpartum depression eight times in the first year after the baby is born. NurturePA Executive Director Susan Crookston says the service is especially ideal for moms in rural areas who are further from support networks. She says for many new moms, having a baby can feel disorienting because so much changes.
“New baby, new everything,” Crookston said. “Your body is different … Every element of your life can be upended by a baby, and though it’s a wonderful and joyous experience, it’s also incredibly challenging.”
Nurture PA is also collecting parenting wisdom from moms across Pennsylvania to be shared across their platforms and in an art exhibit.
To share your words of wisdom or enroll in the free mom-to-mom texting service as a new mom or a mentor, go to the NurturePA website. And for more advice and local resources for new parents, go to Kidsburgh.org.
KDKA is proud to partner with kidsburgh.org.
A man died after the vehicle he was working on fell off jack stands in Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, officials said.
Gage Alexander Rowe died on Monday afternoon following the fatal accident in a garage in Warsaw Township, CBS affiliate WTAJ reported.
Citing Jefferson County Coroner Greg Furlong, the news outlet reported that first responders were called to the garage on Milliron Road around 2 p.m. on Monday. Investigators reportedly said the 25-year-old man was working underneath a vehicle when the jacks holding up the vehicle gave out, killing him.
First responders were called to the home after family members became concerned when Rowe didn’t arrive at a gathering and was unreachable by phone, WTAJ reported.
The 25-year-old man’s cause of death was blunt force trauma, and it was ruled accidental. Authorities did not release any additional information.
An investigation is underway after a person’s body was found in a burned out vehicle on Tuesday, according to the Berks County Coroner’s Office.
Authorities were called to the 400 block of Friedensburg Road in Oley, Pennsylvania, around 9:43 a.m. on Tuesday, May 26 for reports of a van on fire, officials said.
Once the fire was put out, officials reported finding a person’s body in the back of the van so the Berks County Coroner was called to the scene.
The person has not yet been identified but an autopsy is scheduled for Thursday, May 28 to help authorities uncover more information.
The investigation into this case is ongoing.
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