Mr. Primerano told the police that the goldendoodle, named Quincy, then attacked Rex, biting the dog on the neck. When Mr. Primerano tried to intervene, he said that the goldendoodle bit him on his face.

Mr. Huynh told the police that he saw Quincy in Rex’s jaws from the patio of his apartment. Quincy’s owner, Steven Rogers, credited Mr. Huynh with saving his pet’s life.

“I choked Rex to get him to stop biting Quincy,” Mr. Huynh wrote in a statement to the police. “Rex stopped biting Quincy, but I kept choking Rex so he wouldn’t bite me and told the owner of Rex to get a leash.”

Mr. Rogers, 68, has his own court date, he said, for taking his dog outside without a leash.

Quincy had “eight puncture wounds, right in his chest,” Mr. Rogers said in an interview on Thursday at his home.

“I thought it was going to be curtains for my dog,” he said.

Mr. Primerano told the police that as Mr. Huynh held Rex in a headlock, he said, “Your dog is going to die.” Rex’s other owner, Elana Greenfield, whose account was not in the police report, accused Mr. Huynh of additional taunts.

“I heard three gurgles, and he threw him on my lap, and said, ‘One down, one to go; you’re next,’” Ms. Greenfield said on Thursday.

Nora Constance Marino, a Great Neck-based lawyer representing Mr. Primerano, said she has sent the assistant district attorney a letter making the argument for upgraded charges.