2 Children Killed, Mother Hospitalized After Family Pit Bulls Attack Them Outside Tennessee Home

Two children were killed and their mother was hospitalized after the family’s two pit bulls attacked them outside their family home in Tennessee, authorities said.

Family members said Kirstie Jane Bennard, 30, suffered multiple injuries when she tried to pull the dogs off her 5-month-old son Hollace Dean and 2-year-old daughter Lilly Jane, who were killed in the attack.

“She put her body on top of Lilly’s to try and protect her after the attack started,” Bennard’s husband’s uncle, Jeff Gibson, toldUSA Today. “Both [dogs] started attacking her while she lay on Lilly.”

The Oct. 5 attack lasted 10 minutes.

The two dogs, Cheech and Mia, were euthanized.

“I can promise you those children were her world, and if there was any inkling of danger, she would have never had those dogs near her kids,” Bennard’s best friend Kelsey Canfield toldFox News Digital. “Those children were everything to them, and they just have a really long journey ahead.”

Kirstie Bennard and her two children Hollace Dean and Lilly Jane.Facebook

Canfield said Cheech and Mia had been with the family for eight years.

“That attack lasted longer than any one of us could have ever imagined,” she added.

It’s unclear why the dogs attacked.

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“It is still an active, ongoing investigation,” Sheriff’s office public information officer John Morris tells PEOPLE.

AGofundmepage has been set up to help the family.

“They are such an incredible and sweet family and needs lots of prayers and support at this time,” the page reads.

source: people.com