It is part of this anarchist movement to take tools away from the police. "Probably with a dog of that size, he probably would have broken my forearm, said Johnson, who allowed a trained dog to attack him while in a special bite suit. McKean said patrol officers could arrest the person later, without dogs, once they got a warrant. Virtually all of the K-9 handlers at least 16 of the 18 were White. Roberts suffered multiple bites and tears to his left shoulder and arm that required several surgeries that did not fully restore the use, mobility or strength in his arm, medical records show. The Montgomery County Sheriffs Office was the only agency that gave us all of the records we requested. In a majority of the cases, officers were cleared of any wrongdoing and the departments have announced no changes to their K-9 programs.
They wont release bodycam video or other records of their lethal encounter with a man they were questioning about taking photos at a gym on the evening of Sunday, Oct. 27, 2019. Another officer interrupted, saying the question was a false narrative, before Taylor walked into a city council meeting. The Salt Lake City K-9 program has been suspended and no decision has been made about whether it will resume. Ronin, however, was not done for the day. There were 34 incidents with video footage. A German shepherd was unleashed on him anyway, chomping down on his left leg, causing injuries that required multiple surgeries in an attempt to repair nerve, muscle and tendon damage. But a federal judge ruled the handler, Saltzman, was entitled to qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that often shields police and other government employees from liability when they are on the job. Heres how you can do it too. The 2017 report doesnt include similar data. Mesloh said if this tool is needed, it means the police dog is poorly trained and should have never become a K-9 in the first place.. Two years ago, there was a rare fatality: a Montgomery city police dog killed a handyman. The units six deputies and their dogs attend 12-hour group training sessions every other week. In order to be found guilty of resisting arrest, one factual element that must be proved is that the officer was acting lawfully at the time of the event. His trial is scheduled for Feb. 1. In Graton, Calif., Jason Anglero-Wyrick, 36, was mauled in April by a K-9 as he lay face down, his hands wrapped behind his back in an act of surrender, video shows. His court-appointed defense lawyer has requested a mental evaluation, but Matthews has missed court dates, records show, and the case has been repeatedly postponed. They often bite without releasing, even after repeated orders to do so, and sometimes bite the wrong person.
Outside of the Salt Lake City incidents, The Post reviewed 18 other cases captured on video and documented in police reports and legal records across the country. (Spenser Heaps/Deseret News/AP), A young man escapes the jaws of a police dog as he jumps a wall during a demonstration at the University of Maryland in College Park on May 8, 1971. Anglero-Wyrick said in an interview that he thought he was going to die. Ill send four dogs into almost certain death before one of the officers, he said. An interactive guide to police dog attacks. The Birmingham Police Department did not release any data; neither did police in Montgomery or Hoover, a suburb of Birmingham.
Eventually the dog bit him and tried to pull him out of the van. The handler entered with the dog, Niko, on leash. Although deaths are rare, the nonprofit Marshall Project news organization found at least three people had died of injuries from police dog bites since 2011. After months of back and forth, we got data from just a handful of departments. Davis eventually left the scene on a stretcher, heading to the hospital in an ambulance. The officers were responding to a 911 call about a man allegedly drinking and attacking three people, but Bailey's attorney Fatima Johnson says her client was already on the ground with his hands behind his back when the dog was unleashed.
White men were bitten most often, according to the department. He was suspected of assaulting a neighbor and threatening the neighbors family with a gun, but the charges were later dropped. Police dogs bite thousands every year in the U.S. Few ever get justice.
They say the dogs can save the lives of both suspects and officers. That may not be a coincidence, history shows. Next they will come after our tasers and batons until the only thing we have left is our hands and a gun.. Police here almost never release video or detailed arrest reports or even press releases about K-9 bites. This is one of the videos Brown referred to Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill to determine if additional criminal charges were warranted outside the Ryans case. The data also conflicted with its annual reports on the city website. It also makes it hard for them to hear police commands, because hearing can also be diminished while in this state. For decades this image has blunted the scrutiny of the roughly 15,000 police dogs now working in the United States, civil rights groups, policing experts and attorneys say.
"Fuck yeah.". Out!the verbal command that was supposed to get the dog to let go. 6 takeaways from our national investigation. Officer Pearce is now facing criminal charges. police dog bites send thousands of Americans to emergency rooms each year. an investigation by a team of news organizations, Police often use dogs on people who are unarmed, a 17-year-old suspected of breaking into a school. Ronin, a Dutch Shepherd, was trained to sniff for drugs and to capture criminals by grabbing them with his teeth, court records show. Saltzman struggled for almost a minute to get Ronin to let go. A dog with the Montgomery County Sheriffs Office bit a man suspected of stealing lawnmowers after he led police on a chase. They are better than people at finding and chasing suspects, and can search where it is not safe to send officers, said Capt. The deputies worked one at time with four dogs, including one Belgian Malinois crossed with a German Shepherd they call a Maliperd. A deputy, a new man on the team, donned a padded suit and hid behind a tree. The city settled with Roberts last year for $390,000. Deputies then killed the man. So I allowed the dog to keep eating me the whole time, he said. A handler released the large dog, which darted across a field, found the deputy and clamped down on the arm of the suit.
Crucial details about those incidents, such as the race of those attacked, have not been made public aside from the Ryans case and were not always discernible from the videos. That question definitely came up, he said. Fitts faces a felony charge of threatening a police officer and four misdemeanor charges, including resisting arrest, in a criminal case stemming from the incident. It would not be his last that day. Another four were accidental bites of innocent bystanders who were walking their dog, sleeping in a tent or strolling down the sidewalk. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. Theres little oversight or regulation of police dogs in Alabama or across the United States, even though law enforcement agencies employ about 15,000 dogs nationwide for everything from finding lost children to sniffing out drugs, according to the U.S. Police Canine Association, a professional group. Thus pleading guilty legally establishes that the officer was acting lawfully, said attorney Izaak Schwaiger, who is representing the man attacked in the case in Graton. When people are bitten by police dogs, they sometimes try to sueoften unsuccessfully. The image of police dogs started to shift several months ago in Salt Lake City. Officers found Dana Fletcher sitting in his van with his wife and child in the parking lot of a Planet Fitness.
They circled around small houses separated by chain-link fences. Mobile police say they deploy dogs as a last resort and not to capture people suspected of minor crimes. However, as the dog was ordered to move in and bite Fitts, that officer withdrew, the video shows. Their bites can result in severe injuries, even death. Many are trained to bite people. Other videos from different angles can paint a clearer picture but are not always available. Theyre too much of a liability, said Lt. Kerry Morgan of the sheriffs office. Their handlers, he said, often cannot manage them. In a few cases, the people who were bitten have received financial settlements through civil lawsuits. Humans are hard-wired to actively fight an attack that might lead to serious injuries or death. He has denied any wrongdoing. Key videos from those encounters, reviewed by The Post, show officers repeatedly siccing dogs on individuals after they had surrendered or were under the physical control of officers. Sgt. Another officer found the man hiding under a car.
This story was published in partnership with USA Today. AL.com worked with The Marshall Project, the Invisible Institute in Chicago, and IndyStar in Indiana. Patrick McKean leads the K-9 unit in Mobile, Alabama. All Rights Reserved.
From the window of the power company where she worked, Sanders said she panicked as she watched the scene unfold. 
How is it that within a few minutes of the police showing up, a man ends up on the ground with dog bites and shot to death?, The Madison County prosecutor scoffed at community calls to see video of the Fletcher shooting, which he has called entirely justified., Were not turning evidence over to the public, District Attorney Rob Broussard told an angry crowd last year. One of the innocent bystanders was 39-year-old Raymond Roberts, who is White, and was sleeping outside in a tent in Albuquerque when a police dog in pursuit of a suspect in an attempted homicide bit him instead.
The case established that a K-9 attack used to to seize a felony suspect does not constitute deadly force, making it difficult to successfully prosecute officers on felony assault charges for the dog bites.
The Utah State Fraternal Order of Police is holding a fundraiser to help Salt Lake City K-9 officers with their legal bills. A series on the damage police dogs inflict on Americans, published in collaboration with AL.com, IndyStar and the Invisible Institute. But as Officer Tyus found in Selma, that can put them at odds with their department. Pettaway died at the hospital. The timeline argues that officers left Pettaway to bleed untreated for several more minutes. Suspects sometimes hide, hoping to evade or ambush officers, and dogs are able to sniff them out.
Some police dog bites have made news in Alabama.
This story was published in partnership with. Photos by Ashley Remkus and Joe Songer. Hank Sherrod, a civil rights lawyer, represented Matthews, the man who hid under a car in Huntsville.
(Cameron Carnes for The Washington Post), Juanita Fitts points to body-cam footage of the 2018 K-9 attack on her son that is now at the center of a lawsuit against the department. He told officers he was surrendering but a German shepherd was unleashed on him anyway, causing injuries that required multiple surgeries. The dog bit Joseph Pettaway in the thigh and tore his femoral artery. Alabamas ugly secret: Police dog attacks. But for the K-9 locating the suspect and drawing fire, Shearon said at a press conference, deputies would have very likely have walked into an ambush where the suspect was hiding behind a tree.". Joseph Pettaways sister, Jacqueline, comforts their mother, Lizzie Mae Pettaway. I saw the video of me screaming, he wrote, but said he was in so much pain mentally I had checked out in my mind I couldnt feel the attack. He said he thought he was gonna die.. Josh Henry said he has been bitten multiple times and undergone two shoulder surgeries after being knocked over by a dog during training. Gill said he expects additional charges. The site says the K-9 unit is Sim Gills first target, but it wont be his last.. He was pulled over, and as a patrol officer approached him with his gun drawn, Fitts drove away at a high rate of speed through residential housing, running two red traffic signals. K-9s were also routinely used in the 1960s on civil rights protesters. They say they plan on reforming policies, including no longer deploying dogs on suspects in misdemeanor cases. We reviewed court cases and news stories, watched scores of videos of bites, observed police dog training, rode along with a K-9 unit and gathered public records in Alabama and nationwide. What is unusual, for Alabama, is that the public can actually see bodycam footage of a dog attack, obtained in this case through a lawsuit. All five K-9 officers, the sergeant and the captain are on administrative leave. And have they violated peoples rights in a violent and gratuitous way? (Star Democrat/AP), Walter Gadsden, an African American high school student, is attacked by a police dog during a civil rights demonstration in Birmingham, Ala., on May 3, 1963. Patrick McKean, left, of the police department in Mobile, Alabama, discusses his decision to call off a K-9 search for a suspect with Officer Justin Washam.
Yes, we are seeing that, Gill said in an interview. It was disheartening, Brown said, adding that he keeps questioning how the K-9 program got so far off base. Brown immediately ordered a department audit of all video footage associated with K-9 bites, dating back to 2016. In an interview, he told AL.com he was hiding because he was frightened of the officers with guns, and of the dog, too. While the video hasnt been made public, the lawyers for the family recently saw it and submitted a timeline to the court saying the bite lasts two minutes and that the handler, Officer Nicholas Barber, struggled to remove the dog. Don Slavik, executive director of the United States Police Canine Association, said the public typically sees video footage of K-9 attacks from a single camera angle sometimes a video taken by a bystander or a police-worn body camera that focuses on the moment of the dog bite. They sadistically watched the dog eat my leg and kept saying Good dog. Yet, Henry said, it was a no-brainer that he would return as a handler despite those injuries.
We get tunnel vision, homing in on the threat or perceived threat that we need to eliminate.. (Selma Police Department), Ven, a police dog handled by Duchesne, Utah, police officer Tim Adams, takes a bite out of Jacob Plascencia's decoy suit during a competition for K-9 handlers in Draper, Utah, on June 27.
She went out for a walk. Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown said he first learned about the K-9 attack on Jeffery Ryans the morning of Aug. 11 four months after the April incident. He found out from a local newspaper, the Salt Lake Tribune. Barber says, "Sure did, heh, heh (chuckling)." Huntsville says it has one of the nations oldest K-9 units, dating back to 1963. I believe we are at a tipping point.. Joseph died in July of 2018 in Montgomery, Alabama, after being bitten by a police dog. causing more hospitalizations than any other police use of force. bit a man suspected of stealing lawnmowers after he led police on a chase. The department says it deploys dogs as a last resort and not to capture people suspected of minor crimes. The city where someone was bitten by a police dog every 5 days. His body camera was still filming when he called his supervisor to tell him about Ronins three bites. The dog, named Shorty, was only used because Fitts was resisting arrest, police said.
Soon after they drag Pettaway out to the sidewalk and wait another 6 minutes for paramedics. The Selma Police Department which has 64 officers, with five in the K-9 unit describes a very different encounter with Fitts. (His uncle, Reginald Fitts, who is a lieutenant with the department, declined interview requests.). Dogs have played a role in racial conflict in the state, dating back centuries. Six civil rights and trial attorneys interviewed by The Post said that police routinely offer K-9 bite victims plea deals. It was Fitts, driving slowly in his Jaguar, as patrol cars trailed behind him. Milwaukee OfficerNikolas Zens Fired for Accidentally Shooting Innocent Homeowner: Police Video, Shortage of 911 Operators Is Delaying Police Response in Cities Nationwide, Missing Alabama Woman Christina Nance Found Dead Inside Police Van in Police Parking Lot, Police Tased and Threw Deaf Driver to the Ground for Not Following Orders. Dana would have been scared of the dog, said Fletchers sister, Radiah. Prince Harry Talks Nelson Mandela, Princess Diana's Legacies in Speech During His and Meghan Markle's UN Visit, 4-Year-Old Shoots Towards Cops in Utah McDonalds Parking Lot as Father Is Arrested, Damning New Video and Government Report Shows 'Egregiously Poor' Response to Uvalde School Massacre, Rescuers Help Get Elephant and Her Calf Out of Ditch in Thailand, Iowa 4-Year-Old Dies in Freak Accident After Colorado Tree Falls on Him as Children Played on Zipline. Though Ronin kept biting Matthews after he was handcuffed, that did not rise to the level of excessive force, the judge found. Our brains are responding and reacting instinctually. Our heart starts beating faster. I was hysterical, she said. There is no statewide record keeping or data collection on police dogs in Alabama. There was a struggle, and officers shouted that Fletcher had a gun. The officer involved in the incident was arrested and charged with aggravated assault. Become a member today. A half-mile from the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., where police once beat civil rights protesters, Selma police pulled over an unarmed 36-year-old Black man in 2018 for a series of traffic violations that began with him rolling his white Jaguar through a stop sign. A Black officer arrived at that moment, yelling obscenities as he demanded that the dog be pulled away. The officer asks: Are you serious? Barber replies. Good dog. They ruined my life.. A statistical analysis of several years of hospital admissions found that police dog bites send thousands of Americans to emergency rooms each year, causing more hospitalizations than any other police use of force. Also, K-9 handlers say dogs can subdue fleeing suspects who might otherwise be shot. More than 100 videos from an additional 18 police dog attacks have been referred by the police department to the local district attorney for possible prosecution. 
The bite happened early on July 8, 2018. Saltzman did not respond to requests for comment. please, please, please! as the dog bit and shook his leg for 15 seconds before the video abruptly ends. Police dog bites send thousands of people to emergency departments every year. The city attorneys office, which is representing Barber, said he would have no comment. Photographs of police in Birmingham using dogs against Black civil rights marchers shocked the nation in 1963. K-9 trainers and handlers dispute the characterization of the out-of-control police dog or of officers misusing them.
Police in Madison, a suburb of Huntsville, said their dog bit just one person in the past few years. Get the dog!. Every Sunday, the family protests across a highway from the gym, demanding release of bodycam footage. An estimated 40,000 people were treated for K-9 attacks in hospital emergency rooms from 2009 to 2018, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those who have been attacked can face other legal obstacles. Inside Edition caught up with Indianapolis Metro Police Chief Randal Taylor. He doesnt have a chance to defend himself, to protect himself, and for 37 seconds, they let that happen. They are trained to bite with a full mouth, using all of their teeth. Yes.. (Bill Hudson/AP), Body-camera footage from Officer Nickolas Pearce in April shows the officer ordering a K-9 to bite the leg of Jeffrey Ryans in April. Thats more bites than units from 11 other major cities combined. Its a trend, said Jax. To try to get a handle on police dog bites in the state, we asked 11 police departments across Alabama for basic data on how many times their dogs bit someone. All but one were Black. Police chased the SUV through the city until it came to a dead end and crashed in a backyard. But some police departments are coming under fire for how they have utilized some of theirfour-legged members. This makes it difficult for someone who is being attacked by a dog to remain motionless as officers command them to do just that. In pushing to make public the bodycam footage of the fatal bite, Pettaways attorneys argued the video is damning, but that is all the more reason why it should not be confidential., Officer Saltzman whooped and praised Ronin as a Good boy! after the dog pulled Matthews out from under the car.
Additional reporting by John Hammontree with Reckon and Damini Sharma of The Marshall Project. Dogs in Mobile bit suspects in 32 of 63 apprehensionsmore than halfin the past five years, according to city records. They cant be controlled., Charlie Mesloh, a former K-9 handler and professor at Northern Michigan University, said this lack of control is evident in the types of tools now sold to K-9 officers, including a breaker bar that Mesloh said officers use on the lowdown.. Mauled, a new short film produced by Reckon examines how dogs have been used to terrorize and control Black people and communities of color for centuries. (Leah Hogsten/Salt Lake Tribune/AP), Juanita Fitts, mother of Robert Fitts, in Selma, Ala. The officer pinned the teenagers neck, chin and right shoulder to the floor as he repeatedly ordered the dog to attack. It was Ronins first-ever bite. The city last month argued that releasing the video could cause civil unrest.. German shepherds and Belgian Malinois are the most common K-9 breeds, weighing 70 to 90 pounds. It will look antiquated, brutal and inappropriate in this day and age. Back in Huntsville, Roninnow on a leashand his handler were among a swarm of police continuing to hunt for the man who had been driving the SUV. The boy screamed Im a 14-year-old . Robert Fitts screams as a K-9 attacks him after he was pulled over by police for a traffic violation in Selma, Ala., on Aug. 3, 2018.
And Richard Bailey says he is lucky to be alive after police officers in Lafayette, Indiana, ordered their dog to attack him. Correction: An earlier version of this report incorrectly gave Ronald Fittss first name as Robert. In at least half of the 18 cases, the victim was Black. Get the godd--- dog back! Selma Police Officer Robert Tyus shouted, as the other officers ignored his pleas and the German shepherd continued to bite and shake Fittss left leg for nearly 30 seconds. Video of the attack on Fitts was obtained by The Post and has not been previously made public. The Sonoma County Sheriffs Department, which has eight dogs and K-9 handlers, said the use of the police dog was justified. Sgt. "I can state emphatically that the way dogs have been used through slavery all the way through the present absolutely has a racialized component, said Charlton W. Yingling, historian at the University of Louisville in Kentucky. Instead, he watched Fitts scream and writhe on the ground as the dog sunk his teeth deep into his leg. They let that dog rip at his throat, Johnson said. They say it began when Fitts failed to stop at an intersection in the public housing where he grew up and where his mother still lives. Officer Justin Washam wears a protective sleeve for a bite demonstration. The incident is one of at least 37 video-recorded K-9 attacks that have surfaced over the past three years across the country, many showing people under attack even though they are unarmed, have surrendered to police, are already handcuffed or are innocent bystanders, a Washington Post analysis shows.
Even if the public has the information, whats the public going to do?. Neither of those reports includes stats on misdemeanor cases.
Cellphone video published by a local TV station shows police talking to Fletcher and telling him to get out of the van, as the dog pants and barks outside. Again, the handler had a hard time getting Ronin to release, shouting in vain Out! Matthews was charged with felony theft of the SUV and a misdemeanor count of attempting to elude police. The attack took place in 2016 and the video became public in 2018.