Pitbulls maul Detroit child to death.

[Cecelia]

Sure, given the total number of dogs in the US.  But the rarity of fatalities is immaterial in determining which dog breed has killed the most people.  In the same time frame (2005-2017) that Rottweilers, German Shepherds, mongrels, American bulldogs, Mastiffs, Labs, huskies, boxers and Dobermans killed combined killed 146 people, pitbulls killed 284.

Pitbulls are a very dangerous breed of dog.  It doesn't matter all that much if the danger is from nature, nurture, or both.  The fact is that if you are killed by a dog in the US, it is most likely to be a pitbull.

Boru

The statistics are very misleading.  They rely on media reporting, and experts believe as few as 18% of breeds are properly identified. 

The authors report that the breed of the dog or dogs could not be reliably identified in more than 80% of cases. News accounts disagreed with each other and/or with animal control reports in a significant number of incidents, casting doubt on the reliability of breed attributions and more generally for using media reports as a primary source of data for scientific studies. In only 18.2% of the cases in this study could these researchers make a valid determination that the animal was a member of a distinct, recognized breed.

Source: https://www.nationalcanineresearchcounci...fatalities

What happened was, of course, awful.  And the owners should be charged (and never be allowed to own dogs again -- of any breed).  But the statistics can be very misleading when only 18% of breeds could be recognized distinctly.