Jesse Rosas, the uncle of 4-year-old Angelo Mendoza, said he is going to the bank today to set up a fund to help the child.

Rosas, 26, who is trying to gain custody of the boy, said he and the media have been besieged with people wanting to contribute for the welfare of the boy whose eyes were serve rely damaged by his father.

The father, Angel Vidal Mendoza, 34, is accused of mayhem, torture and child cruelty in the April 28 incident in southeast Bakersfield. Mendoza remains in the hospital in good condition after he hacked his own legs with an ax shortly after he reportedly attacked his boy.

Court reports say Mendoza bit out the left eye of his son and severely damaged the right eye. Police said the father showed symptoms of PCP use on that day.

The case has shocked Mendoza's family, Bakersfield and people around the world. The newspaper has received e-mails from concerned people as far away as England and Australia.

Rosas said he saw his nephew two to three times a month at his own home, his brother's home and family celebrations and holidays. "When you saw the love my brother had for his son, you would never expect anything like this to happen," Rosas said.

A reason that Rosas is seeking custody is that Angelo gets along very well with his wife and their own children — a boy,9, and a girl, 3.

Rosas, a homeowner who has worked the last 4 and 1/2 years in the oilfields, said Angelo loved to play on the backyard swing set with his own children or come in and watch a movie with the adults.

Throughout the years, Rosas has bought the child birthday and Christmas gifts, including giving a playpen to the boy shortly after he was born.

Unlike Mendoza who has a criminal record dating back 12 years for drug use, battery, check forgery and a misdemeanor child endangerment, Rosas has no criminal record.

He said he's a graduate of Centennial High School and sent to Taft College for a year and a half. He said is working with Child Protective Services on his application for custody and he fully expects a complete background check and home inspection.

Rosas is a member of Forever Changed, a Christian sport motorcycle group which is also planning fund raising events on Angelo's behalf, including a bike run on June 14. Details are still being worked out, he said.

Mendoza has been charged with many felonies, but he has been convicted of only one, a 1998 battery in the facial stabbing of another man. He was sentenced to three years in prison.

A probation report says Mendoza was a member of the Southern California gang for Hispanics. There is no court record in recent years indicating Mendoza was an active gang member.

Rosas said Mendoza's gang activity was something he did as a youth and outgrew.

Several parents whose children attended an Oildale Head Start school with Angelo have said they saw good interaction between Mendoza and his son. One parent said Mendoza won a participation award at the school

A neighbor of Mendoza's, Tonya Hammond, said that in recent months she saw Mendoza care for Angelo, although in the last week before the incident, Mendoza was short tempered and was afraid people would accuse him of taking drugs.

Still, Hammond — who actually discovered the severely injured Angelo on April 28 — said she did not see anything that she felt needed to be reported to CPS.

Rosas said he has not seen any drug use by Mendoza in recent years.

The uncle said he doesn't have first hand information about how Angelo is doing because CPS is not disclosing that to the family. Hospital officials have confirmed Angelo is no longer at Kern Medical Center, but although CPS says the boy is in protective custody, CPS has not disclosed where.