A Harris County Sheriff’s K-9 dog is still on duty, as is his handler after the dog was sent in after the wrong person in Tomball.
The dog attacked Tim Young during a search for a car thief, leaving him with serious injuries in the May 5th incident.
The sheriff said the suspect had been spotted in the area.
This sort of incident is becoming more common across the united states.
The Youngs are not eager to sue the police, but are facing months away from work, they want to make sure Tim’s medical bills are taken care of and any needed changes made at the sheriff’s office.
Young family attorney Stace Williams said “We would like to see the HCSO say ‘we messed this one up and we do apologize to the family and we were wrong’.”
While apologetic, Sheriff Ed Gonzalez has not taken the dog or its handler off duty, and believes the deputy followed his training.
“I apologize,” the Sheriff said. “It’s always traumatic for anyone to be bit, especially if it’s not the target we’re searching for.”
Gonzalez has seen the video and his internal affairs team are investigating.
“I have to, at this point, believe the deputy did in their training what they thought was appropriate,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez claims the deputy gave ample warning.
“One of the deputies heard the handler give the commands,” Gonzalez said.
Tim and his father both say they never heard any warning, while another witness, Don Lorenz, who is seen in the video wearing a maroon shirt, was in the area at the time and didn’t hear anything either.
“Nobody told us who they were,” Lorenz said. “We did not hear one word of warning.”
Young was fixing an air conditioner under a Tomball mobile home. The dog was on the hunt for that car thief who’d been spotted in the area.
“I didn’t hear anything,” Young said. “I didn’t see anything. I just felt a real sharp pain and I look down and there is a dog.”
In the dark crawl space under the mobile home, he said he grabbed the dog’s mouth and held it shut, not knowing it was a Sheriff’s K-9. He turned around and saw a man in uniform in the opening to the crawl space screaming at him to let the dog go.
“As soon as I let go, the dog bit me,” Young said.
Graphic video of the incident starts as Young is being dragged from under the trailer, The video that shows the dog still pulling at the flesh of his arm.
Deputies at that point were still unaware the K-9 had torn into an innocent air conditioning repairman, not the suspect.
Tim’s father Allen Young said it was the most horrible thing he had ever seen.
“It’s an unfortunate incident,” Gonzalez said. “It’s difficult for anyone to be bit. I am sorry for that.”
“A police attack dog is a deadly weapon,” Williams said. “If you’re going to use a deadly weapon, you have to make sure you got the right guy.”
“They got the wrong guy.”
Williams also takes issue with how deputies reacted after Young was identified as the wrong guy.
Source: abc13.com