A teenager was killed Saturday after he was attacked by three dogs in the backyard of an Irving home at which he did not live, police say.
Irving police said they received reports of a possible dog attack in the 800 block of E. Third Street around 4:45 a.m. Saturday. When officers arrived, they saw three dogs attacking a 16-year-old boy, identified by the Dallas County Medical Examiner Sunday as Nelson Cabrera, in the backyard of a house.
When officers "put themselves between" the dogs and Cabrera, the dogs attacked the officers, police said. The officers then fired shots at the dogs to protect themselves.
"I commend those officers for taking the initiative to jump over that fence and think about victim before themselves," Irving police public information officer Robert Reeves said.
Authorities transported Cabrera to Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas with critical injuries, police said. A dog bit one of the officers, who was treated for the injury and released.
Police said the dogs were secured in the backyard of their owner's home at the time of the attack, while the 16-year-old did not live at the residence.
"We don't want to speculate on what he might have been doing, but we definitely don't know why he was in that backyard," Reeves said.
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The homeowner, Guillermo Lorenzo, said he recognized Cabrera as a homeless kid he'd seen pass through the day before.
"He has no right to be in that yard. Nobody has a right to be in that yard. This is private property. That's why the fence is tall," Lorenzo said.
Lorenzo said he believed his dogs were simply protecting him.
Police confirmed that one of the three dogs was euthanized due to an injury sustained from being shot, while the other two dogs were still at the Irving Animal Shelter.
Anyone with information about the incident was asked to contact Irving police at 972-273-1010 or ipdcrimetips@cityofirving.org, and reference the case number 1917970.
