"It was really bad," an emotional Reyes recalled, tears streaming down her face. "She just kept saying, 'Mommy, I don't want to die. Don't let me die.' "
Reyes' eldest daughter, Sabrina Carrasco, suffered severe injuries Saturday night after being mauled by a pit bull that broke loose from a fenced yard, according to Sacramento animal control officials.
Sabrina was in good condition and good spirits at UC Davis Medical Center on Tuesday, although she suffers from what doctors fear is permanent nerve damage in her face.
On Tuesday afternoon, the girl played with a doll and watched cartoons with relatives while her mother, out of earshot, recalled the terror of the attack.
As they waited for paramedics, Reyes said, she heard Sabrina's voice getting quieter, saw her eyes fluttering shut. She pleaded with her daughter to stay with her.
"She was … like, going to sleep," Reyes said. "She was just going away."
Animal control officials say Sabrina's attack is the worst they've seen in the city in at least three years. They have forwarded the results of their investigation to the District Attorney's Office, which will decide whether to file criminal charges against the dog's owner.
A spokeswoman for the DA confirmed the case is under review but said she could not discuss the matter further.
Such cases are rare in Sacramento. Though an average of 350 dog bites are reported in the city each year, not a single one in recent memory has been referred to the DA'soffice for possible prosecution, said Gina Knepp, a spokeswoman for the city's animal control services.
"It is very much the exception," she said.
Knepp said the dog's owner has agreed to relinquish the 70-pound, 3-year-old male pit bull, which will be destroyed. Efforts by The Bee to reach the owner were not successful Tuesday.
Sabrina and her family, residents of San Bernardino County, arrived in Meadowview on Friday to visit Reyes' aunt, who lives in a condominium complex on La Mancha Way.
On Saturday evening, Reyes' 18-year-old cousin, Joandra Solis, took Sabrina and her two younger sisters out to play in a grassy area of the complex.
Solis looked up to see a pit bull running at her and the children. She scooped up the youngest girls – one not yet 2 years old, the other on the verge of 5 – in her arms and ordered everyone to stay still.
But Sabrina, scared, began to run. The dog overtook her, puncturing her neck and shoulder with deep wounds.
According to Reyes and her family, the dog owner's son witnessed the attack. He yelled at the dog to stop and then ran for his father, who kicked the dog to get it off the little girl, the family said. The man then called 911.
Solis carried the girl back to the condo, where family members were gathered. Reyes said she immediately saw that her daughter's face was "not normal," that half of her mouth appeared frozen. One eye did not blink.
Doctors have told Reyes and her husband, Israel Salvador, that the dog's teeth severed a crucial nerve near the girl's right ear. During surgery that lasted more than seven hours and involved nearly two dozen doctors, surgeons tried to move nerves from elsewhere in the girl's body to close the gap, but were not successful.
Surgery later could potentially fix the problem, doctors told the family. But for now, they are living with the possibility she might never be the same.
"She's not going to be back to normal," said Salvador, who returned home Monday to keep his pool-cleaning service afloat despite the family crisis. "That's what's killing us right now."
Salvador and his wife said they hope for justice in their daughter's suffering.
"I believe there has to be somebody responsible for what happened," Salvador said. "That animal shouldn't have been out there, shouldn't have been on that property, where there's hundreds of kids out there."
Ruth Jones, a professor at McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, said the decision whether to prosecute the dog's owner likely will boil down to what he knew. For example, was he aware the dog was aggressive or dangerous, – and whether his behavior, or failure to act, was egregious?
Knepp said the dog's owner admitted to animal control officers that he knew the gate to his yard was not working correctly, and that he had tried to barricade the gate with a garbage can.
Jones said this, if true, could be a major point of discussion in determining whether the dog owner will face charges.
"Pets misbehave. But pet owners have a responsibility to try to keep the public safe from their pet," she said. "So, as a factual matter, was this pet owner so insufficient in taking care that we think criminal liability might be appropriate, vs. civil liability?"
As prosecutors debate the case, Sabrina awaits her chance to return home. Flanked by a teddy bear and a stuffed Hello Kitty, the 9-year-old said she's looking forward to starting fifth grade – where "mostly everybody is my friend" – later this month.
"I hope I feel better then," she said out of the left side of her mouth, "so I can see all my friends."
(Sacramento Bee - August 10, 2011)
