Suburban Denver Police Allegedly Let Dog Attack Man, Face Lawsuit

A Colorado man has accused police officers in Suburban Denver of allowing a police dog to pounce on him while he was taking a nap, nearly killing him and laying waste of his vocal cords. He added it was an irrevocable damage that it subjected him to.

Spencer Erickson, 25, on Monday sued Lakewood police over improperly releasing the dog to sniff-search his apartment for him in Sept. 2018 during an ongoing investigation on a non-violent property crime, The Denver Post reported.

According to the Lawsuit, the belligerent dog left him with grievous injuries in the neck, a wound measuring nearly 2 inches (5 centimeters) deep, which came alarmingly close to his jugular vein.

Lakewood Police spokesman John Romero revealed that the department refrains from commenting on pending litigation. The lawsuit also says the officers were answering a 911 call from Erickson’s roommate who said Erickson had cut a hole in the apartment’s attic and might be in the crawlspace and the incident took place in the meanwhile. The officers pleaded not guilty of purposely releasing the dog on Erickson.

In another incident which happened on July 4, 2019 a 35-year-old man, Matthew Williams, bit a police dog in a bid to flee his clutch. The man was yelling at the peak of his strength, throwing things and acting aggressively while the officers wanted to arrest him. Upon being caught finally, he was charged with resisting arrest, simple assault and deliberate interference with police dogs.