The police dog looked as if it wanted to play with the shoplifting suspect, wagging its tail and barking at the man, but not biting or attacking.
So the Avondale police officer picked up the dog and charged towards the suspect which was when it began biting him.
Soon other cops joined in, beating the man until they were finally able to arrest the man.
Police say the man, Rafael Gutierrez, 27, assaulted them first, but that part is not captured on video.
According to AZ Family:
We asked a retired officer who is an expert in “use of force” and he doesn’t want to be identified, but says this was not handled correctly.
“It’s bizarre. Actually, I’ve never seen that in a live event,” says the expert. “I have seen that in training on occasion when you’re dealing with a problematic dog.”
The retired officer says this comes down to a training issue and that the dog is not doing what it’s been trained to do.
“The dog is probably causing more harm than good at this point, and I think the proper thing would have done to get the dog out of there,” says expert.
Avondale police say the suspect, 27 year-old Rafael Gutierrez, assaulted the officer and his K9 before this video began, so we don’t see the whole encounter.
We will be updating this story as we get more information.
