A South Carolina man has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and animals/penalty for being the owner of a dangerous animal that attacks and injures a human after his dogs mauled a young child to death last month.
WSAV reported that Lorenzo Cardenas of Marion County was charged on Monday, June 28, after 7-year-old Shamar Sherif Jackson was killed after being attacked by his dogs on June 13 near an intersection in Marion, South Carolina.
According to authorities and a statement from the child’s father, Carnell Jackson, Shamar, a first grader at Lake View Elementary School, and his older brother were walking around the neighborhood searching for their chihuahua when the tragic incident occurred. The dogs allegedly came through a hole in the fence.
“They couldn’t get away because it was so many dogs coming from different directions,” the father explained. The other boy managed to escape. Jackson says his son was stripped naked by the animals and killed.
The family of the young child is devastated. “I’m hurt. I want to cry, but I can’t cry anymore,” the boy’s uncle Anthony Parsley told WBTW. “That’s my little fella there.” At the time, Parsley said Cardenas had not yet apologized to the family.
Meanwhile, Jackson claimed the man told his wife not to touch Shamar until authorities had arrived. “How are you going to tell her to leave her child there?” Jackson questioned. That following Monday, The S.C. Law Enforcement Division came with a cage and removed the dogs from the scene as neighbors and family members of the victim watched.
Residents told the news outlet that the dogs were troublesome and had often escaped their yard, while others said they’ve even harassed and chased neighbors. “It hurts, trust me,” the father told WSAV during a phone interview. “I did not know that when I went to work that day, I would come home, and my son would be gone.”
WMBF reported that the 41-year-old Cardenas was granted a bond of $50,000 on Wednesday, June 30, when, speaking through an interpreter, he told the court, “I also feel that it’s a tragedy. I’m very sorry. I never thought that would happen.”
