Overview
- The California City Police Department responded shortly after 6 p.m. on June 18 to reports that a 12-year-old boy, Fernando Torres Moreno, had jumped into Central Park Lake while fleeing three dogs and was pulled from the water and taken to hospitals where he later died.
- Officers and paramedics began CPR at the scene and the boy was moved from Adventist Health in Tehachapi to a children’s hospital where doctors continued resuscitation efforts before he died.
- A young girl and at least two other children suffered dog-bite injuries; the girl was treated at a hospital for significant but non-life-threatening wounds and released.
- Witnesses and police identified the dogs as belonging to 68-year-old Kenneth Dobbins, who told officers he was with the animals; investigators later secured an arrest warrant and found Dobbins and two of the dogs had fled while one dog was seized in Los Angeles County.
- The family has received local support through a GoFundMe and a vigil, and officials warn the cross-county search raises public-safety and enforcement questions as police ask anyone with information to contact California City authorities.