To perspective the puppy attack, here’s the video clip Palo Alto law enforcement unveiled. And here’s a hyperlink to the eight videos Mountain Check out law enforcement introduced.
Correction: A previous edition of this story mischaracterized the remarks of lawyer Sarah Marinho. This model has been corrected to properly mirror her views.
BY KYLE MARTIN
Each day Article Staff Author
An attorney who is symbolizing a target of a law enforcement dog assault in San Jose mentioned she is concerned just after seeing system-cam video clips of a Palo Alto police doggy attacking a man in his Mountain Look at backyard.
Legal professional Sarah Marinho emphasized that all she is familiar with about the police canine assault of Joel Domingo Alejo is what she’s seen on the video clips, but she stated the episode raises concerns.
The movie reveals Palo Alto Police Agent Nick Enberg frequently telling the doggy to chunk Alejo while Alejo was not resisting the officer.
“What are the other officers doing?” attorney Marinho questioned.
The incident happened in Mountain Watch on June 25, and a Palo Alto police agent, Nick Enberg, and his doggy had been asked to aid the Mountain Look at officers research for the kidnapper. Following the canine consistently little bit Alejo, officers found out he was not the kidnapper.
Alejo’s legal professional has filed $20 million statements against every city.
Marinho is at present litigating yet another police dog attack in San Jose.
Marinho instructed the Submit she does not assistance the law enforcement use of canines to bite people today. And she mentioned that a jury may find Enberg not have been justified with making use of the doggy to chunk Alejo. Additionally, if the jury finds that the use of a puppy to bite Alejo was justified, it is up to law enforcement to establish that the continued biting was not an excessive use of force.
“That was significantly much too extensive. The pet really should right away give up if it is effectively qualified,” Marinho explained. “If they are thoroughly educated and suit to do this, they’re meant to release when commanded.”
According to Palo Alto’s law enforcement procedures, a police puppy can be made use of if “there is a fair belief the suspect poses an imminent danger of violence or really serious damage to the public, any officer or the handler,” if the suspect is resisting or threatening to resist arrest and if the suspect is “believed to be hid in an region wherever entry by other than the canine would pose a threat to the security of officers or the public.”
Marinho mentioned that the footage unveiled by Palo Alto is edited and does not present the full tale of what transpired prior to, throughout and right after the Alejo assault.
Palo Alto officers claimed they had edited the footage released to the public. The Submit, which asked for the video clip beneath a point out law that demands its launch, is looking for the unedited online video.
Marinho she said additional footage might display that the other responding officers at the scene may possibly have experienced an obligation to stop Enberg from inflicting also significantly harm on Alejo.
In San Jose, Marinho claimed canines are “not just for any person or any circumstance.”
“It has to be a unsafe predicament exactly where that person is taking someone hostage or is armed, this sort of to where by an officer would get shot if he goes in,” Marinho claimed. “The police’s mandate is to safely and securely convey their suspect into custody.”
Councilman Greer Stone, who formerly served on the city’s Human Relations Fee and the commission’s Justice Evaluate Committee, told the Publish the assault delivers an possibility for the metropolis to evaluation its police insurance policies for achievable alterations in the upcoming.
Stone said he watched the online video on March 15 of a Palo Alto video of the attack before the city produced the footage to the Post and the community.
Later on that working day, the council had its very first dialogue of the June assault. The dialogue was at the rear of shut doorways. A shut-doorway meeting is permitted if it consists of litigation from the city.
Though he declined to comment considerably on the case, which council first reviewed in closed session on March 15, Stone explained the metropolis with the Palo Alto law enforcement department and other community users need to overview policies these types of as use of canines someday this calendar year.
“Having noticed the video clip, it was obviously a terrible incident. I experience awful for Mr. Alejo to be on the acquiring end of that doggy assault,” Stone reported. “I can not envision what that would be like to wake up in a yard that you are authorized to be in and have a police doggy on his leg and law enforcement officers confronting you. That is horrifying, and I’m happy he’s Okay and he’s recovering.”
Stone included that “any time you’re dealing with a qualified law enforcement canine, the damages could always be considerably even worse.”
“There are obviously moments wherever canines are valuable for the law enforcement office in buy to conduct queries and maintain the neighborhood risk-free,” Stone mentioned. “I think there is a balance to be struck and I believe we ought to explore that.”
Prior Post tales on the Alejo attack
• March 28, NAACP calls for firing of cop in pet-chunk case
• March 22, Residents call for cop’s firing in pet assault
• March 18, Palo Alto officer whose doggy attacked guy was named in earlier lawsuit more than a police K9 attack
• March 16, Police launch video clip of doggy assault
• March 15, Town Council to go over law enforcement dog attack guiding shut doorways
• Jan. 28, Law enforcement doggy assaults harmless person napping in his personal backyard