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WARREN -- A city man is facing a misdemeanor vicious-dog charge after the dog allegedly ran through a screen door Tuesday evening and attacked a girl, biting her in the hip and leg.
William A. Naylor, 41, of McMyler Street was arraigned Wednesday in Warren Municipal Court on first-degree misdemeanor "dangerous and vicious dogs." He pleaded not guilty and will return for another hearing Sept. 23.
A police report states that officers were called to the 2200 block of McMyler Street at 5 p.m. Tuesday for a dog bite. Before officers arrived, they were advised that the dog's owner had a warrant for his arrest for a similar incident involving the same dog. That June 3, 2026, incident resulted in Naylor being charged with a felony.
When officers went to the home Tuesday, the people in the home said Naylor would be back soon and that he had gone down the street to a store. They said the girl's parents had taken the girl to the St. Joseph Warren Hospital for treatment.
They said the girl walked up to their house to "get some sweets from them as she has done in the past." When she knocked on the door, the dog ran through the screen of the screen door and bit the girl. The girl's mother later told the Tribune Chronicle that the girl, 8, was bit on the hip and twice on her leg.
Naylor returned to the home and told officers he knows he has a warrant. Officers took him into custody.
Officers asked whether the dog's vaccines are up to date, and Naylor said he thinks they are, but he could not give a detailed list of the vaccines. He said the shots were given in 2023.
Officers went to the hospital and spoke with the girl's parents and took photos of the girl's bite injuries, the report states.
Naylor's warrant was for failing to appear in Warren Municipal Court on a third-degree felony charge of "vicious dog act" filed against him June 17. Because Naylor was taken into custody Tuesday and had an arraignment Wednesday on the new charge, he also was arraigned on the felony vicious-dogs charge from June.
According to court records, Naylor told Judge Patricia Knepp on Wednesday he surrendered the dog to the Trumbull County Dog Warden. But the records state that "in the event that the surrender has not yet taken place, (a) condition of bond (is that Naylor) is to immediately restrain and confine the animal."
The entry also states that Naylor is prohibited from allowing the dog to have any contact with any person or other animal.
The girl's mother, Heather Peterson, told the Tribune Chronicle on Thursday the dog is with Jason Cooke of the Healthy Hearts and Paws Project, where it will remain in quarantine for 10 days. She said her daughter was bit as she was going down the stairs at the home where Naylor and his mother live. The house is close to the girl's home.
Peterson said her son also was bitten by the dog several years ago, but said Naylor "is not a bad guy," and she is not pressing charges against him. She said she saw how another person treated the dog while Naylor was away for a while, and she thinks that is the reason the dog has bitten several people.
"The only thing we want done is the dog put down," Peterson said. "It has to be euthanized."
EARLIER DOG ATTACK
A Warren police report on the attack that resulted in the felony charge states that a Niles woman working for Franklin Pharmacy was making a delivery to the home where Naylor lives on McMyler Street on June 3 about 2:40 p.m. She walked to the door and "heard the dog bark. She yelled to get the dog, then the dog came out and bit her in the hand and legs," the report states.
She told police the dog was "on top" of her, and she was "yelling and kicking the dog to get off her. She crawled to the car and called her daughter at the pharmacy," the report states.
Her daughter called the woman who was receiving the delivery, and the woman said the dog, a pit bull, belonged to "someone downstairs name(d) William Naylor," the report states.
"The (woman from inside the house) was at the door coming outside and the dog busted out the door ... and attacked" the delivery person, the report states.
A Warren police officer stated that he went to the home where the attack took place to give Naylor a summons to appear in court, but Naylor was not cooperative.