CHEROKEE COUNTY, SC (WSPA) – A mother is speaking out after her little boy was mauled to death by dogs earlier this month.
“Just being at home with him, curled up on the bed watching TV,” said Bianca Thomas. “He always said ‘Mommy come on, we gotta go snuggle’.”
It’s one of the moments Thomas misses the most. Her 8-year-old son, Korbin Michael Williams, was her only child.
It’s been two weeks since she says Williams finished his chores and headed to a friend’s house.
“He goes, ‘yes ma’am.’ He goes ‘I love you mommy, I’ll see you at 5’ and he walked out the door,” she recalled. “I’ve always taught him he has to be respectful.”
Soon after, Thomas says her neighbor rushed over with the devastating news. Three dogs had attacked Williams and his 8-year-old friend Caleb tried to stop the dogs, but couldn’t, so he ran to his own mother for help.
“By the time I got out there, the dogs were already running off and Dawn (neighbor) is trying to shield Korbin from me seeing him. She wasn’t letting me get near him. She didn’t want me to see that,” said Thomas.
“And I appreciate her for doing that but I’m also upset because I didn’t get to hug my son one last time.”
The coroner says Williams died at the scene on Daniel Morgan School Road in Cherokee County.
“When the paramedics got there, they tried to bring him back. They didn’t. They couldn’t,” she said through tears.
Thomas says Williams knew the dogs well. Two of the dogs were shot and killed by deputies who said the dogs were being aggressive, and a neighbor killed the other dog after it initially ran away.
“Korbin always played with Possum. He always played with Bear. He always played with Sadie,” Thomas said of her son, a first-grader at Northwest Elementary School.
She says the boys were going to feed the German Shepherd mixes that belonged to her now-devastated neighbor. She said the man taught Williams a lot and is also heartbroken. The incident happened while he was out of town.
“[I’m] Hurt but, I’m not mad at him,” she said of her neighbor. “It was a freak accident. It could’ve happened to anybody.”
She says that kind of negative emotion was the exact opposite of her son.
“Big heart – he wore his heart on his sleeve,” she said.
She said Williams had already been through a lot in his short eight years.
Korbin suffered a stroke at 3, forcing him to relearn how to walk and talk.
“He was a shy boy – shy boy before his stroke,” said Thomas. “After his stroke, he completely changed. He opened up. He just blossomed into this beautiful little boy.”
A little boy Thomas says was as energetic as his hobbies — and changed his hair color based on the people he met in life.
“He was getting ready to dye his hair orange for his teacher because that was her favorite color,” said Thomas. “He usually does pink for October, for breast cancer because his granny on his dad’s side had breast cancer.”
She says Williams touched many lives and will always be missed.
“Remember his smile, his personality, his love for life,” she said.
Thomas says she appreciates all the community support and wants people to know they shouldn’t be afraid of dogs after the tragedy.
Cherokee County Sheriff Steve Mueller says there are no charges pending.