A toddler was mauled to death after her family didn't notice she had gotten out of the house, and seven of their nine dogs attacked her in the backyard, Georgia authorities said.

Monica Renee Laminack, just 21 months old, crawled through the doggie door of her family's Ellabell, Ga., home on Wednesday evening and managed to slip out into the backyard, Debra Odom, Bryan County sheriff's office administrative secretary, said.

That's when the family's pet dogs — all pit bulls or pit bull mixes, according to Odom — seized on her.

"They started attacking the child, mauled her, drug her all over the yard, took her clothes off, scattered her clothes," Bryan County Sheriff Clyde Smith said in a news conference Thursday.

Emergency personnel arrived on the scene to find the girl covered in bite marks and were unable to revive her, reported WTOC.com in Georgia. 

“When we got here and spoke to EMS, they told us that when they got here, she was already cold. There was nothing they could do,” Bryan County Deputy Sheriff James Beatty told The Savannah Morning News.

Five people were home at around 6 p.m. when the mauling happened, according to WTOC.com, including Monica's 12-year-old brother, who was assigned to watch her, and their grandmother.

The grandmother, who was not identified, reportedly woke up to hear the dogs barking; she looked out her window and yelled "They are killing Monica!", reported WTOC.com. 

Bryan County Animal Control euthanized all seven of the dogs involved. An Irish settler and beagle that the family owned were spared, Odum said, adding authorities had never been responded to calls at the home before this.

An autopsy was being conducted on Thursday. No charges have been filed yet.

"It's still under investigation right now," Odum said.

It's unclear why the dogs became aggressive with the toddler, who would have turned 2 years old in June. 

 “She habitually played with dogs, all of them. But they drug her all over the yard. Something turned them on her. We don’t know what,” Smith said, reported The Savannah Morning News.

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. -- Police say a Massachusetts man left his girlfriend's 2-year-old son in a car while he went shopping for Black Friday bargains, then went home with his new 51-inch flat screen television and left the toddler behind.

Police, alerted by store security, found the boy asleep in the vehicle in a Kmart parking lot at about 1:30 a.m. Friday.

They forced their way into the car and took the boy to the hospital as a precaution.

Meanwhile, they tracked the man to his Springfield home.

Slideshow: Americans line up for Black Friday

C Michael Bergen / Zuma Press

Eager holiday shoppers forego an after Thanksgiving nap to wait in line for door busting bargains.

Launch slideshow

Hordes of shoppers hit the stores on Black Friday

He told police he lost the boy while shopping, panicked and called someone else for a ride. The boy's mother was working.

The 34-year-old man was not arrested and not immediately charged, but police say they expect to charge him with reckless endangerment to a child.

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In what police describe as a tragic accident, the 3-year-old son of a San Jose, Calif., police officer was shot and killed Wednesday evening at his home in Gilroy. The boy's death from his wounds was confirmed late Thursday.

The Gilroy Dispatch newspaper reported that three other children were inside the home at the time of the incident, indicating this might have happened during a play date.

Police won't say who pulled the trigger of the handgun, but reports say the boy either shot himself or another child accidentally fired the gun. 

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"Unfortunately, emergency personnel were unable to save the boy and he was pronounced deceased while en route to a local hospital," Gilroy Sgt. Chad Gallacinao said in a statement.

He added that the investigation will focus on how the gun was stored inside the house and why a child was able to get their hands on it.

It is not known if the gun was the father's police-issued firearm.

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Chicago police received a surprise this week when they reportedly found a three-year-old girl holding a handgun during a routine traffic stop.

NBC Chicago

Queshawn King was stopped last week in Chicago.

Police pulled a car of six people over in East Garfield Park, a community in the west side of Chicago, last Wednesday night . Two children were seated inside, with no car seats or seat belts, police said. When the officer approached the vehicle, he saw the 19-year-old driver, Queshawn King, making "furtive" downward movements to the three-year-old, the Chicago Tribune reported, citing police.

An officer then asked the man, who was described as "nervous," to step out of the car. He heard King yell to the toddler by her nickname, "Fatty" multiple times.

Read more on the toddler on NBCChicago.com

A police sergeant approached the front passenger side of the car and saw the child holding the handgun. When he tried to retrieve it, she threw the 9 mm weapon to the floor.

It was loaded with eight rounds, but did not discharge, police said.

King was charged with felony unlawful use of a weapon for having a loaded weapon inside the vehicle, misdemeanor endangering the life and health of a child, and misdemeanor possession of a firearm without a valid FOID (Firearms Owner's Identification) card.

Besides King and the young girl, four other people were in the car, including another child, the 3-year old's mother, grandmother and a man who was behind the wheel.

The other occupants of the car reportedly told the police the gun did not belong to them, the Tribune reported.

King was subsequently taken to Cook County Jail Thursday after a judge set his bail at $50,000, according to the Cook County sheriff's office. 

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By The Associated Press
WALL TOWNSHIP, N.J. - Authorities are looking for the father of a New Jersey toddler who was found dead in her car seat, partially submerged in a stream.

Two-year-old Tierra Morgan lived in Lakehurst with her mother and was having a court-approved visit with her father Monday, but he never brought her back.

The Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office says Arthur Morgan III is wanted for questioning in his daughter's death. She was found still strapped into her car seat in a park stream Tuesday afternoon in Wall Township, about 20 miles away.

The toddler was discovered by children playing in Shark River Park. They notified park rangers, who called police.

A warrant charging Morgan with child endangerment was issued before the girl's body was found. An autopsy is to be done Wednesday morning.