A six-month-old girl has died from injuries sustained during a dog attack in Alabaster last week.
According to the Shelby County Coroner's Office, the infant, Ember Southard, was at a family member's house on March 14 when the attack happened.
Ember's grandmother found the child unresponsive with obvious signs of injury.
Anna Southard, Ember's mother, reportedly told WKRG that her daughter was attacked by an 11-year-old American Bully.
“Friday morning, I went to take my grandmother to a doctor’s appointment at 9:40, I was going to just take my daughter with me but my family said 20 minutes would be fine,” Anna Southard told the outlet. “We hadn’t even checked in at the doctor, we hadn’t even been gone 20 minutes, before we got a phone call from the family member watching her. I raced home, and got there just behind the ambulance. My daughter already looked dead. I hit my knees in the driveway hard enough to make them bleed. I heard dog attack. My grandfather got there the same time I did. They got Ember in the ambulance, and I rode upfront. I kept begging for her to be okay but I already knew my daughter wasn’t going to live. I knew it the moment I saw her blue and unmoving. She was with this family member for 20 minutes. She was attacked by an American Bully, an 11 year old dog that had been around countless children, and has never harmed one before.”
The mother was not pushing to press charges against her family member but said she would never forgive them.
"I will NEVER forgive this family member for falling asleep with my daughter on their chest. Never. My daughter is gone forever because they couldn’t follow a simple [expletive] rule. I follow safe sleep rules to the letter, and I never allow my children around dogs like that," she told WKRG.
A GoFundMe has been set up for Ember's funeral costs.
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