On Friday night, a four-year-old Brooklyn boy was mauled to death by his family's pet dog. And neighbors are now saying that the Cane Corso dubbed "Machete", along with the family's other dogs, were trained to kill by Jayelin Graham's mother's boyfriend, Damian Jones: "He would hang stuff on trees or the school yard fence - stuffed animals or footballs - just so his dogs could rip the stuff up. It was an accident waiting to happen," neighbor Robin Parkinson told the Post.
Parkinson said that Jones allegedly bragged about how he trained his dogs, which included a Pit Bull and a Husky mix in addition to the Cane Corso: "I asked him what kind of dogs are those? 'Monster dogs' [Jones replied]. He could clear the block with them dogs. He used to punch them in the heads, kick them in the ribs, brutal." Another neighbor who tried to save Jayelin from the dog told the News, "He was trained to kill. He had the boy by his throat. The dog was shaking him. He had no chance."
But Graham's mother, Saquina "Honey" Jubeark, absolved Jones of any responsibility: "It was not my son's or [Jones'] fault. The dog had showed no sign of aggression." She told NY1 she was devastated by the death, but she doesn't want to lose her three other kids: "My kids know I love them, I'm a good parent, I would understand if I were some mean parent...I didn't care about my kids. That was not the case. If I could take my son's place I would, and I can't. My baby is gone, there's nothing I can do."
Jubeark screamed in horror as the dog attacked her son in their apartment on Pacific Street in Brownsville just after 9 p.m. Friday, where police found Jayelin with bite wounds on his head, neck and torso. Family friend Ashley De La Cruz described the brutal attack to NY1: "We seen what happened. The dog was over the baby. He wouldn't move, and Jaylen was just laying there...he was laying in a puddle of blood and they couldn't get the baby out." Another neighbor, "Jah", said he shattered a window and tried to rescue the four-year-old: "You could tell by the blood that he dragged the kid from the bedroom into the living room. I screamed move and the dog dropped the kid and went into a defensive position. He was staring at me. The baby was dead. The blood was down all around the abdomen."
Police say conditions inside the home were not good—they found animal feces and urine inside. You can see a video taken from inside the home here. Police sedated and removed the dog, as well a German shepherd. According to the Times, the Brooklyn district attorney’s office and the city’s health department were investigating the situation.
Graham's other family members were devastated by the attack: "What a horrible way to die. I have a lot of frustrations, a lot of emotions, a lot of anger," said the boy's great-grandfather, Ameer Jamaal-Uddin.
