Mother wants justice for baby killed by dog while in foster care
CLEARWATER (FOX 13) - Last Friday, Shavon Grossman spent the morning with her infant daughter, Khloe Williams, before giving the baby back to her foster family.
"She let out a big smile, and she rattled her toy, and I just expected to see her again,” she said. “I just don't understand it."
Grossman was set to start unsupervised visits this week and planned to bring the 7-month-old home next month. But about an hour after dropping Khloe off, the baby was mauled by a dog.
"This was not a simple bite, this was an attack and the dog did serious traumatic injuries to Khloe," Clearwater Police Chief, Daniel Slaughter said.
Slaughter says the foster parents, Melissa and Jonathan Maser dropped Khloe off at Jonathan’s parent's house in Clearwater so Pamela Maser could babysit.
Their nearly 2-year-old rescue dog was home and put into its crate when the infant arrived. We're told Khloe was in her car seat on the couch, and Pamela was getting a bottle ready when things suddenly went wrong.
"This dog that's in this kennel was acting a little energetic like he wanted to go outside or something, opens up that door and the dog immediately goes and attacks Khloe,” said Slaughter. “Pamela Maser tried to intervene with this dog and get the dog separated from the child."
Documents released Friday by Eckerd Connects reveal Melissa got to the house shortly after the attack and did CPR on Khloe. The baby was rushed to the hospital, but she didn't make it.
Police started investigating immediately, and The Child Protection Investigation Team is also doing a separate inquiry.
Still, Grossman and her attorneys are calling for another independent investigation by the FDLE.
"Something like this doesn't happen without someone making some kind of mistake," Attorney Nioti Koulianos said.
Khloe's foster father is a detective with the Clearwater Police Department, and his dad, Paul Maser, is a former Deputy Chief for the agency. The lawyers say this is a clear conflict of interest.
"We believe that any investigation coming out of this department would have some shadow cast on it with all those conflicts, glaring conflicts that we've just pointed out," said Koulianos.
Slaughter disagrees, saying his investigators can conduct an impartial and thorough investigation despite the department's ties to the case.
He tells us they plan to turn everything over to the State Attorney's Office to determine if criminal child abuse or neglect charges are warranted.
"The fact that I’m gathering evidence that I’m taking to the State Attorney's Office that could potentially result in a criminal charge demonstrates that no one’s getting any preferential treatment,” Slaughter said.
Grossman says her baby should still be alive, and Khloe’s death was absolutely preventable.
"I want justice for this, somebody needs to take accountability for it,” she said.
FOX 13 News also learned the dog had a previously documented bite incident. It happened back in March when the Masers were beginning the adoption process. Pinellas County Animal Control tells us the dog was euthanized.
Khloe will be laid to rest at a private ceremony next week.