A newly filed lawsuit details how Colorado police sent a police dog to attack 14-year-old Angel Nunez on April 27, 2019. However, Nunez was not the shoplifting suspect police were looking for, police admitted that they thought Nunez was a fleeing suspect in a case of mistaken identity. Now the Nunez family has filed a civil rights lawsuit against the Fort Lupton Police Department, The Firestone Police Department, and the Weld County Sheriff’s Department.
The lawsuit was filed in 2020 and can be read here.
Police were looking for a white male who had just led them on a high speed chase, after stealing beer and laundry detergent from a convenience store in Firestone, Colorado. KDVR News reports Nunez and his sister were playing outside of their residence when officers came running at them shouting that Nunez was the suspect and fit the description.
An officer quickly tackled Nunez and other officers sent a police canine dog to attack and bite Nunez as he lay on the ground. Nunez’s parents quickly came outside and told the officers to stop because they had the wrong person. But the officers continued to let the dog bite into the legs of the innocent teenage Nunez. The police dog belonged to the Weld County Sheriff’s Department.
The real suspect had ran into the direction of Nunez’s apartment complex, but got away. The suspect was a white male, with dark hair standing 5’9 to 5’10 wearing a black jacket, black pants and white shoes.
The officers on scene finally realized that Nunez was not the white male suspect that they were looking for. One of the officers then mutes their body camera so his words could not be heard. Nunez got an infection from his bite wounds.