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VOLUME 6, NO. 31
Dangerous dog: Lab that bit boy, 8, gets county’s attention
FPC’s Jaelynn Lawrence (pictured) and Matanzas’ Jillian Bontempo
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2015
A FATHER REMEMBERS 9/11 While he was setting up triage in the South Tower, his son was helping people to safety in the North Tower.
The commission found that the boy wasn’t trespassing when he entered a friend’s home, where the dog bit him.
JACQUE ESTES STAFF WRITER
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JONATHAN SIMMONS NEWS EDITOR
The 2-year-old chocolate Labrador retriever that mangled the face of an 8-year-old boy July 5 should be declared a dangerous dog, the Flagler County Commission voted 4-1 at a Wednesday, Sept. 9, hearing. The commission’s vote contradicted the recommendation of a county hearing officer. The case hinged on a point of law: Dogs protecting their home may not be designated as dangerous, even if they injure an intruder in the process — a canine version of the castle doctrine. In this case, the situation in which the dog, Bacchus, bit the boy was unclear: The boy, Rickey Westfall, said his friend let him into the home before Bacchus bit him, but the dog’s family said Rickey had walked into the house on his own, uninvited. But several commissioners — George Hanns, Nate McLaughlin and Barbara Revels — said that a dog that knew a child, as the dog in this case did, should have known not to attack him. Revels doesn’t have a dog, but of one of her friend’s dogs, she said, “the dog will recognize me;
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Jeff Dawsey
RIVALS OR FRIENDS? VOLLEYBRAWL, 15A
Photo Jacque Estes
Arnie Roma, with a photo of the Twin Tower Memorial Lights
o words were needed. The ash-covered fireman’s helmet, encased in a glass display box, spoke volumes. It was the helmet worn by Keith Roma, a Fire Patrol fireman who responded to the World Trade Center’s North Tower on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. Arnie Roma had just completed his shift as an emergency room nurse when he received the call from his son. “He called me — thank God I spoke to him,” Roma recalled. “I could hear the fire truck and he said, ‘Dad you won’t believe this, a plane just hit the Twin Tower.’ I had worked until 3 a.m. in the ER. I told him, ‘Keith be careful, I’ll meet you there.’” Keith Roma responded to the North Tower; his father worked with a triage unit in the lobby of the South Tower. “We were in the main lobby doing triage when we heard a bunch of trains coming, but it wasn’t the trains,” Arnie Roma
said. “I looked up about 200 feet and see everybody running toward us. I remember flying, but I don’t remember hitting the ground. Just a peaceful feeling — very submissive, no fight, no pain. I just laid there and said, ‘Go to sleep; it’s all over.” But it wasn’t over. Arnie Roma was transported to a nearby hospital. “A group of 50 of us got out,” he said. “everybody running toward us, not one made it. I knew Keith had to have seen what happened from the North Tower.” Keith’s boss told Roma where his son was when the North Tower collapsed; he was in the mezzanine escorting people to safety. “The women were wearing high heels and took their shoes off, but with all that glass from the revolving door … Keith was picking them up and putting them on the other side,” Roma said. “His boss made it, which filled in a lot of questions.” Keith Roma helped about six groups get out before the building SEE 14 YEARS PAGE 4A
PROUD MAMA
SEE LAB PAGE 5A
Photos by Anastasia Pagello
VFW PAGE 29
Kaleb Shaw, age 8, celebrates Labor Day with his family.
Atlantic bottle-nose dolphin Shaka gave birth to a calf Sept. 2, at Marineland Dolphin Adventure.
READ THE STORY BY ANASTASIA PAGELLO ONLINE, AT PALMCOASTOBSERVER.COM.