A 68-year-old Antelope Valley man has been jailed after authorities said his dogs set off a deadly sequence of events that led to the drowning of a 12-year-old boy at a California park.
Kenneth Dobbins was arrested Thursday in Lancaster by Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies after a civilian reported seeing him walking near a workplace and contacted law enforcement.
Deputies responded quickly and took Dobbins into custody without delay.
His arrest is tied to a June 18 incident at a park in California City, a Kern County community roughly 100 miles north of Los Angeles, where 12-year-old Fernando Torres Moreno died while attempting to flee a dog attack.
Authorities said the incident began around 6 p.m., when dogs associated with Dobbins started chasing the boy.
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According to one account, two unleashed dogs pursued Fernando, driving him into a lake as he tried to escape.
Emergency crews from the California City Police Department arrived and found the child submerged in the water.
Officers pulled him from the lake and began CPR at the scene before paramedics transported him to a hospital in Tehachapi Valley.
He was later transferred to Children’s Hospital in Bakersfield, where he ultimately died from his injuries, according to reports cited by the Los Angeles Times.
Dobbins faces charges of involuntary manslaughter and negligent ownership of a mischievous animal.
His first court hearing is pending.
