Parents of boy mauled to death by dogs in July arrested

The parents of a four-year-old boy who was mauled to death by dogs in July have been arrested.

On July 27, four-year-old Jacob Brooks was mauled to death by his family’s dogs at his home on the 9100 block of Morelia.

When police arrived, they found the Brooks’ body in the backyard. Police say the boy’s mother left him in an enclosed trampoline, where there were four dogs.

After an investigation by Crimes Against Persons, El Paso police say the boy’s parents, 27-year-old Brittany Brooks and 29-year-old Ashley Brooks, were arrested at a relative’s home Friday evening. Both women were charged with Injury to a child and booked into the El Paso County Jail under $7,500 bonds each.

The home where Jacob Brooks was killed is now empty.

Crime scene tape is still tied to a nearby pole.

“I would always see him when I got off of work jumping, on the trampoline,” Antonio Perez said.

It was a Friday evening in July when police were called out to the home for an unknown reason.

When first responders arrived the boy was already dead.

The following day. next-door neighbors recounted the terrifying scene.

Sebastian Hernandez’s brother tried to help.

“He jumped over the fence and actually got the dog off and he had to defend himself because the dog was trying to bite him too,” Hernandez told ABC-7 in July.

Documents filed by Animal Services officers after the incident revealed the dogs were starving and aggressive.

Perez feels the arrest was necessary.

“People need to see the consequences. It’s the life of child and it needs to be respected and they need to be taken care of,” Perez said.

Two months later, Perez says the neighborhood remains scarred from that fateful day and they still think of the young boy who’s life was taken too soon.

“It was a sad day for everyone involved,” Perez said.