http://www.nydailynews.com/front/sto...p-349719c.html
The 4-year-old Long Island boy who was knocked from his tricycle and savagely mauled by a neighbor's dog is racked by fear and pain, his mom said yesterday.
"Am I dead?" little Matthew Henriques asked his father, as he lay in agony following Friday's attack in East Meadow.
The boy also wanted to know what happened to Jasmine, the vicious 85-pound Rottweiler that tore his ears and gashed his face - one of three dogs who escaped from a neighbor's yard.
"I told him the dogs are in doggy jail," said Matthew's mother, who did not want her name used.
The dogs were seized by animal control officers and brought to the Town of Hempstead shelter. Their owner, Lawrence Kelly, 25, faces misdemeanor charges for not securing the dangerous animals.
He was under a court order to keep Jasmine penned at all times following an attack on a neighbor's pet rabbit two years ago.
Sources said the dogs are likely to be destroyed.
The canine rampage came as Matthew pedaled on a sidewalk alongside his grandparents, who were pushing his 14-month-old sister, Stephanie, in a stroller.
The grandparents were visiting from Portugal, said family attorney Giancarlo Terilli.
Jasmine somehow escaped Kelly's yard and pounced on the terrified boy, knocking him from the tricycle and sinking his teeth into Matthew's face, police said.
Sue Nicholson, a neighbor, was in her home with her 5-year-old son when she heard the grandmother's cries.
"I opened the door and saw the baby sitting in the carriage, and one of the Rottweilers was roaming," she said. "I ran to the baby and I just took the whole carriage in the house. A Rottweiler at that point had started walking across my lawn."
The grandparents fought off Jasmine and carried Matthew into his home - but the bloodthirsty dog managed to follow them inside, continuing the attack in the family's kitchen, cops said.
Matthew's grandfather, whose name was not released, finally stopped the dog by spraying the animal with a garden hose.
The kids' uncle, who gave his name as Claudio, said family members were praying for the little boy and his grandfather, who are being treated at Nassau University Medical Center.
But they're grateful Stephanie escaped harm.
"She's very fortunate," the uncle said as he held the pink-clad toddler yesterday.