Police Dog Bites Wrong Man
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A man in St. Paul, Minnesota received a personal injury as a result of a case of mistaken identity.
After a police officer went to a downtown bus stop in response to a call about a gun-toting suspect, he went to his squad car to get his police dog for assistance. The dog did his duty, chasing down a 19-year-old man and biting down on his lower left leg.
However, there was one serious problem. The man Sarik, the dog, had chased down was not the man the police were looking for.
After a confrontation with a rowdy group at the bus stop, Officer Isaac Rinehart went back to his squad car to retrieve Sarik. However, the dog did not wait to be leashed, slipped out of the grasp of Rinehart, and clamped onto the leg of Antonio Johnson, all according to a report written by Rinehart.
According to the report, police later discovered that Johnson "was neither a suspect or a victim in the weapons call." Johnson was transported to Regions Hospital. There, he was treated for "canine punctures.
According to Pete Crum, a spokesman for the police department, the incident was under review and Sarik would remain on patrol.