A 19-month-old toddler was on Tuesday night mauled to death by his family’s dog after his father left him and his two other siblings alone in their Brooklyn apartment to go to work, police said. Their father, identified as, Vernon Foster, has since been charged.
According to ABC7 New York, little Ryan Francis Foster and his siblings – aged 9 and 11 – were left alone with the Rottweiler by their father though the dog is reported to have aggressive tendencies. The dog is said to have bitten the victim’s 11-year-old brother in 2019, and the minor was actually scared of it.
Authorities said when officers responded to the scene of the incident after they were notified of the attack, they found the toddler with several body wounds and bleeding severely. And in the aftermath of the attack, Ryan’s older brothers carried him out of the apartment in search of help.
Ryan was rushed to a local hospital for treatment but he did not make it. “It’s a terrible situation,” NYPD Assistant Chief Michael Kemper said. “Terrible situation for them and certainly for the family that is affected by this tragedy.” The dog, however, did not attack Ryan’s brothers.
Meanwhile, some neighbors who spoke to CBS New York said Foster shouldn’t have left the minors alone. “Baby is not supposed to be home by itself. I know it’s hard times, it’s pandemic times. We try to make ends meet … ya gotta work,” a neighbor said.
Another neighbor added: “To hear that somebody just left children in the house with a dog, it’s unbelievable.”
Foster has been charged with manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and acting in a manner injurious to a child. “He was my miracle baby,” the deceased toddler’s mother, Susan Hyre, told WKRN. “I never thought I would have children again because I had a very complicated pregnancy.”
Hyre and Foster are reportedly separated and the three children were under their father’s care at the time of the attack. The dog has since been taken away from the home.
