Talmika Bates, 26, became a suspect when she and two other women robbed an Ulta Beauty Supply store of nearly $10,000 worth of cosmetics. Police arrived on the scene and sicked a police dog on Bates to stop her from fleeing. However, the dog went berserk and mauled the young woman “for several minutes,” ultimately tearing her scalp from her head, before police officers had to physically separate the dog’s jaws from Bates’s skull.
Because the police dog attack left her disfigured, Bates has filed a lawsuit against police in the Bay Area of California for excessive force. The lawsuit claims that police officers allowed the dog to maul Bates, who was twenty-four years old at the time of the attack before they stopped the German shepherd from killing her. The incident occurred on February 10, 20220, and although Bates had simply committed shoplifting – not a violent crime – the Bay Area police allowed the dog, named Marco, to maul Bates until it ripped off the top of her head.
After Bates and the two other female suspects robbed the beauty supply store, they fled in a car. Eventually, police caught up with them, stopping the car. The suspects then fled on foot, which was when the police sent Marco to maul Bates.
Police allowed the dog to maul Bates for several minutes before Brentwood Police Officer Ryan Rezentes commanded Marco to stop. The dog ignored two commands, which meant that Rezentes had to go over to the dog and physically remove him from his grip on the victim’s head. When police tore the dog off of her, Bates’s scalp was torn off.
“My whole brain is bleeding,” Bates exclaims in the graphic footage captured at the time of the arrest.
The lawsuit claims that Officer Rezentes and other police officers are guilty of not alerting Bates to the fact that they unleashed a K-9 unit to find her while she was hiding in the bushes. The police allowed the dog to attack her for minutes while they simply waited.
According to Bates’s attorney, Patrick Buelna, the police had no sympathy for Bates during the attack and ignored her cries for help as they told her that she “should not have run.” Buelna is representing Bates along with Adante Pointiner. In a conversation with the New York Post, Buelna spoke about how police used excessive force in this case.
“Talmika says she still has nightmares of the dog grinding and chewing on her head,” Buelna said. “She says that she felt like she was going to die that day and really did not believe she’d live to tell her story but is alive and thankful. She had to have her scalp surgically reattached to her head. She suffers severe depression and remains traumatized from the mauling.”
Meanwhile, court documents reveal more details bout the horrific attack.
“Officers Rezentes and Lou yelled at Ms. Bates to stand up, an impossible task, as leaves and twigs scraped against her open head wounds,” according to a court document. “Eventually, Officer Lou helped Ms. Bates to her feet and placed her in handcuffs. The Officers berated Ms. Bates for running from police as if getting her head bit and mauled by a vicious canine was a lawful and appropriate punishment for her crimes.”
Do you think the police should have stopped the dog attack?
Source: AWM